will
See also: Will
will - English
Pronunciation
- IPA: /wɪl/, [wɪɫ]
Alternative forms
Verb
will (third-person singular simple present will, present participle willing, simple past would, no past participle)
- (auxiliary) Used to express the future tense, sometimes with some implication of volition when used in the first person. Compare shall.
- One of our salesmen will visit you tomorrow.
- I will pass this exam.
- (auxiliary) To be able to, to have the capacity to.
- Unfortunately, only one of these gloves will actually fit over my hand.
- (auxiliary) Expressing a present tense with some conditional or subjective weakening: "will turn out to", "must by inference".
- He will be home by now. He always gets home before 6 o'clock.
- I can't find my umbrella. I will have forgotten it home this morning.
- (auxiliary) To habitually do (a given action).
- (auxiliary) To choose or agree to (do something); used to express intention but without any temporal connotations (+ bare infinitive), often in questions and negation.
- Will you marry me?
- I’ve told him three times, but he won’t take his medicine.
- (now uncommon or literary, transitive) To wish, desire (something).
- Do what you will.
- (now rare, intransitive) To wish or desire (that something happen); to intend (that).
- (archaic) Implying will go.
Usage notes
- Historically, will was used in the simple future sense only in the second and third person, while shall was used in the first person. Today, that distinction is almost entirely lost, and the verb takes the same form in all persons and both numbers. Similarly, in the intent sense, will was historically used with the second and third person, while shall was reserved for the first person.
- The present tense is will and the past tense is would. Early Modern English had a past participle would which is now obsolete.
- Malory: ‘Many tymes he myghte haue had her and he had wold’. John Done: ‘If hee had would, hee might easily [...] occupied the Monarchy.’
- Formerly, will could be used elliptically for "will go" — e.g. "I'll to her lodgings" (Marlowe).
- See the usage note at shall.
- The present participle does not apply to the uses of will as an auxiliary verb.
- The form of will with the enclitic -n’t (or the present tense negative form of will in the analysis in which -n’t is an inflectional suffix) is won’t (“will not”) (rather than the form that would be expected based on a regular application of -n't, willn’t), while the corresponding form of the past tense would is wouldn’t.
Translations
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Alternative forms
- wille (obsolete)
Noun
will (plural wills)
- One's independent faculty of choice; the ability to be able to exercise one's choice or intention.
- Of course, man's will is often regulated by his reason.
- The act of choosing to do something; a person’s conscious intent or volition.
- Most creatures have a will to live.
- One's intention or decision; someone's orders or commands.
- Eventually I submitted to my parents' will.
- Firmity of purpose, fixity of intent
- Synonyms: determination, firmness, resoluteness, resolve
- (law) A formal declaration of one's intent concerning the disposal of one's property and holdings after death; the legal document stating such wishes.
- Synonyms: testament, last will, last will and testament
- (archaic) That which is desired; one's wish.
- (archaic) Desire, longing. (Now generally merged with later senses.)
- He felt a great will to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Derived terms
Collocations
(conscious intent or volition):
- a strong will
Descendants
- → Bengali: উইল (uil)
Translations
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Verb
will (third-person singular simple present wills, present participle willing, simple past and past participle willed or (rare) would)
- (transitive, intransitive) To instruct (that something be done) in one's will.
- (transitive) To bequeath (something) to someone in one's will (legal document).
- He willed his stamp collection to the local museum.
- (transitive) To exert one's force of will (intention) in order to compel, or attempt to compel, something to happen or someone to do something.
- All the fans were willing their team to win the game.
Synonyms
Translations
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will - Cahuilla
Noun
wíll
will - German
Pronunciation
- IPA: /vɪl/
Verb
will
- first/third-person singular present of wollen
will - Yola
Verb
will
- Alternative form of woul (“will”)
Noun
will
- Alternative form of woul (“will”)