voluntarily

[vol-uhn-tair-uh-lee, vol-uhn-ter-]

adverb

1. of one’s own accord or by free choice.

   Students were mostly attending the sessions voluntarily, so they were reasonably well-behaved.

2. by volunteers, or in a way that depends on voluntary action.

   The Political Science Club is a politically neutral and voluntarily operated nonprofit organization.

Other Word Forms

• unvoluntarily adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of voluntarily¹

voluntary ( def. ) + -ly

Example Sentences

It would represent around a five-fold increase from the 35,000 migrants who were removed from the UK over the last year - the majority of whom went voluntarily.

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By this logic, since Americans are voluntarily taking the alleged drugs, does that make drug users material supporters of terrorism?

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The driver remained in his car during a nearly two-hour standoff with police, until he voluntarily emerged shortly before 6 p.m. and was taken into custody.

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Attorney Gabe Banks said in a statement that Gibson voluntarily turned himself “to answer for a misdemeanor warrant.”

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"We take this extremely seriously and as the well-being of our guests is our top priority, we have voluntarily closed until further notice," the owners said, adding that they hoped to reopen on 7 October.

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Related Words

• deliberately 
• freely 
• intentionally 
• spontaneously 
• willingly