volunteer
Americannoun
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a person who voluntarily offers to perform a service or other undertaking.
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a person who performs a service willingly and without pay.
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Military. a person who enters the service voluntarily rather than through conscription or draft, especially for special or temporary service rather than as a member of the regular or permanent army.
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Law.
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a person whose actions are not founded on any legal obligation so to act.
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a person who steps into a matter that does not concern them, such as a person who pays the debt of another where they are neither legally nor morally bound to do so and has no interest to protect in making the payment.
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Agriculture. Also volunteer plant a plant that springs up spontaneously, without being seeded, planted, or cultivated by a person.
We didn't plant any watermelons this year, but look at all the volunteers from last year's crop.
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Volunteer. a native or inhabitant of Tennessee (used as a nickname).
adjective
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of, relating to, or being a person who voluntarily offers to do something.
a volunteer fireman.
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Agriculture. growing without being seeded, planted, or cultivated by a person; springing up spontaneously.
volunteer tomatoes.
verb (used without object)
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to offer oneself for some service or undertaking.
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to enter service or enlist voluntarily.
verb (used with object)
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to offer (oneself or one's services) for some undertaking or purpose.
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to give, bestow, or perform voluntarily.
to volunteer a song.
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to say, tell, or communicate voluntarily.
to volunteer an explanation.
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to promise the services of (someone) without having asked if it is something they actually can or want to do.
He volunteered me to sand and paint the bottom of the boat, and I don’t have the slightest interest in sanding, painting, or boating.
noun
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a person who performs or offers to perform voluntary service
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( as modifier )
a volunteer system
volunteer advice
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a person who freely undertakes military service, esp temporary or special service
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law
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a person who does some act or enters into a transaction without being under any legal obligation to do so and without being promised any remuneration for his services
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property law a person to whom property is transferred without his giving any valuable consideration in return, as a legatee under a will
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a plant that grows from seed that has not been deliberately sown
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( as modifier )
a volunteer plant
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verb
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to offer (oneself or one's services) for an undertaking by choice and without request or obligation
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(tr) to perform, give, or communicate voluntarily
to volunteer help
to volunteer a speech
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(intr) to enlist voluntarily for military service
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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volunteersimple
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volunteerssimple
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have volunteeredperfect
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has volunteeredperfect
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am volunteeringprogressive
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are volunteeringprogressive
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is volunteeringprogressive
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have been volunteeringperfect progressive
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has been volunteeringperfect progressive
Past
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volunteeredsimple
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had volunteeredperfect
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was volunteeringprogressive
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were volunteeringprogressive
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had been volunteeringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of volunteer
First recorded in 1590–1600; from French volontaire, from Latin voluntārius voluntary, with -eer for French -aire
Explanation
To volunteer means to freely offer up your time and service to help. So a volunteer might offer to water a neighbor's plants while he's on vacation or sign up to serve dinner at a local homeless shelter. When it came into usage circa 1600, the noun volunteer referred to a person who offered himself up for military service. It wasn't until a few decades later that the word was first used in a non-military sense. And a little over a hundred years after that, volunteer expanded from functioning as just a noun to also playing the role of verb. A volunteer is someone who volunteers: willingly performs a task or offers a service.
Vocabulary lists containing volunteer
Giving Words
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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.
See Examples For:
"You run to save what you can and then you turn to defend" against the fire, said Karim Benali, 39, a volunteer who spoke to AFP on a road near Navaluenga, west of Madrid.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
Holliday spends her volunteer time socializing over coffee and the newspaper, helping residents run errands, leading fitness classes on Saturday mornings and organizing game nights.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
Homeowners spend thousands to ward off the pantry-raiding, toothpaste-sniffing beasts, exposing a rift among volunteer groups.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
She went on to work for various Labour MPs, including party veteran Jon Trickett and Lisa Nandy, and became a volunteer police officer for the Met.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
She then spends four years in Niger, Colombia, and El Salvador as a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching children and adults how to read and speak English.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
It is Brighton and Hove's oldest local nature reserve and a team of volunteers has been helping to manage the grasslands to promote glow worms.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
The site is increasingly looking like the centre of a party, with volunteers doing their best to manage the crowds.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
These long-term research volunteers have contributed years of their time to help scientists define successful cognitive aging and identify new pathways that may promote resilience.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 25, 2026
"The Ukrainian army today relies to a large extent on volunteers," she said, arguing products therefore have to be "simple, clear and easily reproduced".
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
“Then 1 of our volunteers will visit y’all. We need to ensure that the dog is healthy and friendly.”
From "The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl" by Stacy McAnulty
“Having this opportunity to have tickets for these kids and families, it’s going to be beyond their wildest dreams,” said Washington, who volunteered in the opening ceremony at the 1984 L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
While at Pinellas County Jail, he testified against or volunteered information on more than two dozen defendants in exchange for lenience from prosecutors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
It is not clear when he became close with Farage, but Cottrell volunteered for him in an Essex by-election in 2015 and was rewarded with a role as Ukip's head of fundraising, aged 22.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
Alexander Lunin, 39, volunteered to fight in Ukraine following the start of Moscow's full-scale offensive in 2022.
From Barron's ● Jun. 29, 2026
His uneasiness increasing instead of subsiding, after a quarter of an hour’s consideration, he set off for the coach-office with Startop, who volunteered his company, to make inquiry when the next coach went down.
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
A day later Cardiff Rugby academy players found the tub while doing volunteering work, and handed it to park officials.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
Joginder Singh, a 45-year-old businessman volunteering at the camp, said supporters from Mumbai, Chennai and Punjab had been placing delivery orders directly to the protest site.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
She is outgoing and active and enjoys surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding and volunteering at a farm once a week, Walker said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
After Iraq, he kept volunteering in disaster zones and conflict zones—Haiti, Belize, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, the Syrian border, the West Bank.
From Slate ● Jul. 14, 2026
“Cool! Me too! I mean, my nana lives here, but I’m volunteering for the summer. I’m kind of the activities coordinator.”
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
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.
