unwillingly
adverb
Simple meaning
Without wanting to, or against one's wishes.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhnwilihngleeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ənˈwɪlɪŋli
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adverb
In an unwilling or uncooperative manner.
“He had sinned against her unwillingly.”
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: In an unwilling or uncooperative manner.
Used this way, unwillingly is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It keeps things gentle rather than emphatic.
“He had sinned against her unwillingly.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Reluctant or hesitant
- Usage feel
- Understated and gentle
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use unwillingly
- “He had sinned against her unwillingly.”adverb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Not disposed or inclined toward.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The trait of being unwilling.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.