reluctance
Americannoun
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unwillingness; disinclination.
reluctance to speak in public.
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Electricity. the resistance to magnetic flux offered by a magnetic circuit, determined by the permeability and arrangement of the materials of the circuit.
noun
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lack of eagerness or willingness; disinclination
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physics a measure of the resistance of a closed magnetic circuit to a magnetic flux, equal to the ratio of the magnetomotive force to the magnetic flux
Other Word Forms
- prereluctance noun
Etymology
Origin of reluctance
First recorded in 1635–45; reluct(ant) + -ance
Explanation
Reluctance means "unwillingness." Your reluctance to travel on an airplane would be understandable if you glimpsed the pilot and copilot wearing party hats and blowing noisemakers. If you'd rather not do something, you feel a sense of reluctance about it. You pause for a moment, maybe to consider whether you should really go through with it, or just to enjoy the last moment before it happens. The word comes from the Latin reluctari, or to struggle against. There's always a struggle when reluctance is present, in that you feel pressure to do something or in not agreeing right away, someone is going to be disappointed.
Vocabulary lists containing reluctance
Coraline
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Boy: Tales of Childhood
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Stargirl
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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.
Minutes from the Fed’s March 17-18 meeting, released Wednesday, underscored that the war hadn’t created the Fed’s reluctance to cut so much as it had complicated an already-cautious posture.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 8, 2026
So you can understand, if not necessarily agree with, their reluctance to drop out and call it a day, in the hope that, just maybe, that proverbial bolt of lightning will strike.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 1, 2026
Given Bale's heights for club and country, you can understand the reluctance to make the comparison.
From BBC • Mar. 25, 2026
With so much at stake in this moment in time, that reluctance looks more like apathy.
From Salon • Mar. 14, 2026
President Wilson’s reluctance to lend suffragist leaders his support caused them to take a new look at what they needed to do.
From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler
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.
