willingly

[wil-ing-lee]

adverb

1. in a consenting and often cheerful way.

   They volunteer for duty on faraway battlefields, willingly putting their lives on the line to fight and possibly die for their country.

Other Word Forms

• overwillingly adverb
• prewillingly adverb
• quasi-willingly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of willingly¹

First recorded before 900; equivalent to willing ( def. ) + -ly ( def. )

Example Sentences

Greg Norman knows life would have been simpler if he hadn’t willingly placed himself at the center of the bare-knuckle brawl that plunged professional golf into chaos.

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Penelope had not willingly left England; quite the contrary.

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That some people willingly eat kippers and eggs for breakfast is a fact that others may find hard to swallow.

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Some workers go willingly to the scam hubs, while others are trafficked and held in prison-like conditions.

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“Given the right circumstances, human beings can willingly, even joyfully, dominate and torture other human beings,” he says.

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Related Words

• cheerfully www.thesaurus.com
• freely 
• readily 
• voluntarily