volunteer

American  

[vol-uhn-teer] / ˌvɒl ənˈtɪər /

noun

• volunteers
  plural

1. a person who voluntarily offers to perform a service or other undertaking.

2. a person who performs a service willingly and without pay.

3. 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.

4. Law.

   1. a person whose actions are not founded on any legal obligation so to act.

   2. 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.

5. 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.

6. Volunteer. a native or inhabitant of Tennessee (used as a nickname).

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or being a person who voluntarily offers to do something.

   a volunteer fireman.

2. Agriculture. growing without being seeded, planted, or cultivated by a person; springing up spontaneously.

   volunteer tomatoes.

verb (used without object)

• volunteers,
  present (3rd person singular)
• volunteered,
  past participle,  past
• volunteering
  present participle

1. to offer oneself for some service or undertaking.

2. to enter service or enlist voluntarily.

verb (used with object)

• volunteers,
  present (3rd person singular)
• volunteered,
  past participle,  past
• volunteering
  present participle

1. to offer (oneself or one's services) for some undertaking or purpose.

2. to give, bestow, or perform voluntarily.

   to volunteer a song.

3. to say, tell, or communicate voluntarily.

   to volunteer an explanation.

4. 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.

volunteer British  

/ ˌvɒlənˈtɪə /

noun

1. 1. a person who performs or offers to perform voluntary service

   2. ( as modifier )

      a volunteer system

      volunteer advice

2. a person who freely undertakes military service, esp temporary or special service

3. law

   1. 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

   2. property law a person to whom property is transferred without his giving any valuable consideration in return, as a legatee under a will

4. 1. a plant that grows from seed that has not been deliberately sown

   2. ( as modifier )

      a volunteer plant

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verb

1. to offer (oneself or one's services) for an undertaking by choice and without request or obligation

2. (tr) to perform, give, or communicate voluntarily

   to volunteer help

   to volunteer a speech

3. (intr) to enlist voluntarily for military service

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• prevolunteer
  noun
• unvolunteering
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• volunteers
  plural

Participles

• volunteering
  present
• volunteered
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• volunteer
  simple
• volunteers
  simple
• have volunteered
  perfect
• has volunteered
  perfect
• am volunteering
  progressive
• are volunteering
  progressive
• is volunteering
  progressive
• have been volunteering
  perfect progressive
• has been volunteering
  perfect progressive

Past

• volunteered
  simple
• had volunteered
  perfect
• was volunteering
  progressive
• were volunteering
  progressive
• had been volunteering
  perfect progressive

Future

• will volunteer
  simple
• will have volunteered
  perfect
• will be volunteering
  progressive
• will have been volunteering
  perfect progressive

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

volunteer volunteers volunteered volunteering

"I'm not saying everyone has a poor pension, not everyone is on the basic pension, but some are and they still manage to come and volunteer, which is absolutely fabulous," she said.

From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026

Be ready to volunteer as a poll worker.

From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2026

Re-Oak California needs donated acorns, volunteer planters and propagators, and money — especially if Crouch is to reach his dream goal of planting 20,000 trees a year.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026

Other recently retired lawyers who have worked with retirement consultants took left turns as screenwriters and volunteer paramedics, or have opened wineries and wedding venues.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026

The campaign volunteer who drove me in from the airport pokes her head into the room.

From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon

Formed in 1935, it currently has more than 80 volunteers who regularly attend mountain and cave rescues, as well as assisting in other public service incidents.

From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026

Los Angeles Animal Services staff argued that evidence dogs were kept largely off-limits for volunteers to walk because, unlike other animals at the shelter, the dogs weren’t the property of the city.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2026

"Hallelujah, hallelujah," sang a group of volunteers in yellow t-shirts.

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

Next door, Daniel Lancaster has turned the pay-what-you-can coffee he handed out to volunteers after the hurricane into a full-fledged coffee shop, Short Sleeves Coffee.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026

One of the volunteers takes some information from Jay, gives her a box, tells us to make our way around.

From "On the Come Up" by Angie Thomas

After retiring from the ministry, I volunteered in local high schools and was stupefied by the lack of financial knowledge among students in the latter stages of their education.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 26, 2026

Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care physician who had volunteered in Gaza, described the horrific scenes she witnessed.

From Slate ● Sep. 25, 2026

It said the man who was given a conditional caution had also volunteered for interview.

From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026

Fathers who played baseball volunteered their time to coach us.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

The pundits weren’t meeting teams of high school “Barack Stars,” who volunteered after football practice or drama club.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

Life is not one big vacation, so there are many ways you can fill your time — volunteering, playing golf or tennis, etc.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026

Yet Yu Wenlei, a 21-year-old university student in Nanjing who was volunteering at the Romantic Center on a recent Saturday, said her fellow Gen Zers have reservations about parenthood.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026

When Tasker left teaching, she initially started volunteering for PlayStation's YouTube channel, but she said there was lots of crossover between the two industries.

From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026

Now, Kushner is volunteering to unseat the Republican incumbent, who has been in office since 1997.

From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2026

Last summer, I got a job at McDonald’s instead of volunteering at New York Methodist hospital like I used to.

From "The Sun Is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon

Related Words

• come forward
• enlist
• sign up
• step forward
• suggest