Willingness

How to spell willingness

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce willingness

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does willingness mean?

1. nounThe quality of being ready, glad, or prepared to do something.

Willingness in a sentence

• Her willingness to work weekends impressed the new manager.

• The charity depends on the willingness of volunteers to give their time.

Where does willingness come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word builds on the native English verb 'will', which comes from the Old English 'willan', meaning 'to wish' or 'to intend', a verb shared with German 'wollen' and ultimately tied to the Latin 'velle', also meaning 'to wish'. The adjective 'willing' originally described someone who acts of their own desire rather than under compulsion, capturing the idea of doing something gladly. Adding '-ness', a thoroughly English suffix that turns a quality into a noun, produced the abstract idea of being ready and glad to act. The form appears in English from the late medieval period onward and has stayed steadily in use. The spelling trap is the join between the parts: 'willing' already ends in a single 'g', and the '-ness' suffix simply attaches, giving the doubled 'l' from 'will' followed by 'ingness'.

How the word is built

• will (root: intend, be inclined)
• -ing (adjectival/participial suffix)
• -ness (noun-forming suffix: state or quality)