Willfully

How to spell willfully

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce willfully

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does willfully mean?

1. adverbIn a deliberate and intentional way, often with a stubborn disregard for consequences or rules.

Willfully in a sentence

• The contractor willfully ignored the safety regulations to finish ahead of schedule.

• She willfully withheld the documents the auditors had requested.

Where does willfully come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This adverb is built on the adjective willful, which joins the native Old English noun willa, meaning 'will, wish, or desire', to the suffix -ful, meaning 'full of'. So at root willful describes someone or something that is, quite literally, full of their own will, that is, set on having their own way. The adverb form simply adds -ly to mark the manner in which something is done. From the start the sense carried a faint disapproval, suggesting stubbornness or deliberate intent rather than mere eagerness, and modern legal English still uses it to mean a wrong done knowingly and on purpose. The spelling trap is the doubled letters where the parts meet: the base word ends in two l's (will), and the suffix -ful contributes a third l before -ly, so the joint runs willfully. American usage keeps this doubled form, while British and Canadian writing more often drops one l to wilful and wilfully, which is exactly why the count of l's feels uncertain.

How the word is built

• will (intention, desire)
• -ful (full of)
• -ly (adverb suffix)