# will

Pronunciation: say "WIL" /wɪl/

## Verb

1. Auxiliary of the future tense ('will you be home for dinner?'), in the first person sometimes with a note of intention or determination ('I will').
   - Simple: Used to talk about the future, as in 'it will rain'.
   - _The shop will open at nine._
   - _We will not give up._
2. Used for what regularly happens or what someone characteristically tends to do.
   - Simple: Used for what usually happens, or what someone always does.
   - _Accidents will happen._
   - _He will leave the door open, however often I ask._
3. Used to express willingness or refusal with no reference to time, mostly in questions and negatives.
   - Simple: Used to ask or say what someone agrees or refuses to do.
   - _Will you help me with this?_
   - _The door won't open, and the window will not budge either._
4. Used to say what is inferred or supposed to be true now or to have already happened.
   - Simple: Used to guess what is true now or has already happened, as in 'they will be asleep by now'.
   - _You will have heard the news, I suppose._
   - _They will be in bed by now, surely._
5. To be able to, expressing what something has the capacity to do.
   - Simple: Used to say something can do a job, as in 'this will fit'.
   - _The tank will take forty liters._
   - _This key will open the back door._
11. To exert one's will so as to compel, or try to compel, something to happen or someone to act ('the whole crowd was willing the runner on').
   - Simple: To try to make something happen just by wanting it very hard.
   - _He willed his hands to stop shaking._
   - _Nobody can will a broken bone to heal._
12. To leave property to someone, or direct that something be done, by means of a legal will.
   - Simple: To say in your will who gets your things, or what should happen, after you die.
   - _She willed the farm to her eldest son._
   - _You may will the cottage to whomever you choose._
6. To wish, choose, or desire, surviving mainly in phrases such as 'call it what you will' and 'if you will'. *(literary)*
   - Simple: To want or choose, used in phrases like 'call it what you will' and 'if you will'.
   - _Call it what you will, it is still a tax._
   - _Say what you will, she was brave._

## Noun

7. A formal declaration of how one's property is to be disposed of after death, and the legal document that records it ('is old Hannah in the will?').
   - Simple: A legal paper that says who gets your things after you die.
   - _The will was read the day after the funeral._
   - _He changed his will twice in his last year._
8. The faculty by which a person decides and acts; conscious choice or volition ('free will', 'of her own will').
   - Simple: The ability to decide what you do, or your own free choice.
   - _Philosophers still argue whether the will is free._
   - _The drug seemed to take away her will, and she did whatever she was told._
9. Firm determination or strong desire to do something ('the will to live'); willpower.
   - Simple: Strong determination to do something, even when it is hard.
   - _Recovery takes patience and will._
   - _He lacked the will to argue._
10. What someone wishes, intends, or decides, or the commands expressing it ('against her will', 'the will of the people').
   - Simple: What someone wants or has decided should happen.
   - _The king's will was law._
   - _She bent the whole committee to her will._

## Verb

13. Used with the verb of motion left unsaid, meaning 'will go'. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: An old use meaning 'will go', as in 'I'll to England'.
   - _We will to the fair tomorrow. (old use)_
   - _She will hence at once. (old use)_

## Origin

**Meanings 1–6, 13** — From Old English willan ("to want"), going back through Proto-Germanic *wiljaną to the Proto-Indo-European root *welh₁- ("to choose, wish"), and related to German wollen and Latin velle. Its history sometimes blends with that of the regular verb will, from Old English willian.
**Meanings 7–10** — From Middle English wille, from Old English willa, from Proto-Germanic *wiljô ("desire, will"), ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *welh₁- ("to choose, wish"). It is related to Dutch wil, German Wille, and Swedish vilja.
**Meanings 11–12** — From Old English willian ("to will, desire"), from the same Proto-Indo-European root *welh₁- ("to choose, wish") as the modal will. Its history sometimes blends with the modal's, which comes from the closely related Old English willan ("to want").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/will (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).