Wouldn't
verbContraction of 'would not', used to express refusal, unwillingness, or a hypothetical negative.
How to spell wouldn't
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce wouldn't
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does wouldn't mean?
- verbContraction of 'would not', used to express refusal, unwillingness, or a hypothetical negative.
Wouldn't in a sentence
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She wouldn't sign the contract until her lawyer had read it.
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The engine wouldn't start in the freezing weather.
Where does wouldn't come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is a contraction of 'would not', and both parts are deeply rooted in Old English. 'Would' is the past tense of 'will', descending from the Old English 'wolde', meaning 'wished' or 'intended', which in turn came from the verb 'willan', 'to want' or 'to wish'. The silent 'l' in 'would' is a fossil: it was added in the 1500s by writers who wanted the word to look like 'should' and 'could', even though it was never pronounced. The 'not' element comes from Old English 'nawiht', literally 'no thing' or 'nothing'. Contractions like this one became common in informal writing from the 1600s onward, and the apostrophe stands in for the missing 'o' of 'not'. The spelling traps are precisely those two quiet features: the unpronounced 'l' and the apostrophe that replaces the vowel rather than sitting between the two words.
How the word is built
- would (past tense of 'will')
- n't (contracted form of 'not', with the apostrophe marking the dropped 'o')
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