strong-willed
Americanadjective
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having a powerful will; resolute.
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stubborn; obstinate.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of strong-willed
First recorded in 1895–1900
Explanation
Someone strong-willed doesn’t give up easily. A strong-willed person is determined. Your will is your desire or drive to do something, so a strong-willed person is someone with a powerful will. This can be positive or negative. A child who insists on going to the zoo in the rain is strong-willed in a stubborn way. Someone with deep beliefs is strong-willed in a better way. A hero — or anyone who shows courage — is strong-willed. You have to be strong-willed to stand up for what you believe in during difficult situations.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
His mother, Laura, was the backbone of the family: strong-willed and devoutly Methodist.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
It didn’t take long to recognize that the core of the hearing would be an honor dispute between two strong-willed men.
From Slate ● Mar. 18, 2026
As a girl, Petrou was studious and strong-willed; in a 2018 profile in The Wall Street Journal, her mother recalled Petrou getting into a heated “intellectual disputation” with their rabbi at Sunday school.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026
Luckily, Emily Blunt wasn’t just brave enough to turn in a decent performance in one of last year’s worst movies, but so strong-willed she called out this awful trend.
From Salon ● Jan. 11, 2026
Celibidache was a conductor from the old school, an imperious and strong-willed man with very definite ideas about how music ought to be played—and about who ought to play music.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
