willfully

Or wil·ful·ly

[wil-fuh-lee]

adverb

1. deliberately or intentionally; on purpose.

   Any seller who knowingly or willfully certifies false statements is subject to fine and imprisonment.

2. in an unreasonably stubborn or headstrong way.

   The student disrupted school activities and willfully defied the authority of teachers, administrators, and other school employees.

Other Word Forms

• half-willfully adverb
• half-wilfully adverb
• unwillfully adverb
• unwilfully adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of willfully¹

First recorded before 1000; equivalent to willful ( def. ) + -ly ( def. )

Example Sentences

“Do not speak to me of cruelty, Miss Lumley. Better Fredrick believe me dead than to think I abandoned him willfully. You of all people ought to know how it feels to be left behind.”

Read more on Literature

That’s a reference to the Dunning-Kruger effect — you know, the tendency of those willfully or unalterably ignorant to vastly overestimate their abilities and/or intelligence.

Read more on Salon

From the journals Metcalfe has surmised that Vivien, herself a brilliant literary scholar and teacher, had willfully lived out her marriage under Blundy’s shadow, the dutiful handmaiden to a literary eminence.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

All Californians need to stand up to people who not only want to remain willfully ignorant about the bad parts of our history but also want to stop others from learning about them.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“I killed Robert F. Kennedy willfully, premeditatedly, and with 20 years of malice aforethought,” he told the court, later explaining it was a reference to the 1948 birth of Israel.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• consciously 
• knowingly www.thesaurus.com
• pointedly 
• purposely 
• studiously www.thesaurus.com
• voluntarily