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volition

UK/vəˈlɪʃ(ə)n/US/voʊˈlɪʃ(ə)n/
nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,083 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: volitions

Volition is the power to choose and act for yourself. Of his own volition, act of volition, without volition.

It appears almost only in of your own volition, meaning nobody made you, which is the phrase courts and reports use. In psychology it names the step between deciding and doing, which is where most plans fail.

Definitions of volition

  1. 1nounvolitionThe power to choose and act for yourself.C2

    “The robot seems to act of its own volition, but it is only following a program.”

volition is a will.

Where it comes from

Latin volitio comes from velle, to wish or want.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *welh₁-

  2. French

    volition

  3. English, today

    volition

From French volition. From French volition, from Medieval Latin volitiō (“will, volition”), from Latin volō (“to wish; to want; to mean or intend”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European welh₁- (“to choose; to want”)) + -tiō (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European -tis).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

volition in the wild

  • Higher-order volitions (or higher-order desire), as opposed to action-determining volitions, are volitions about volitions.

    Higher-order volition

  • Higher-order volitions are potentially more often guided by long-term beliefs and reasoning.

    Higher-order volition

  • When using verbs of volition in English, like "want" or "prefer", these verbs are not expressly marked.

    Volition (linguistics)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.