Home UK English volition

Meaning of volition in English:

volition

Pronunciation /vəˈlɪʃ(ə)n/

Translate volition into Spanish

noun

mass noun

  • The faculty or power of using one's will.

    ‘without conscious volition she backed into her office’
    • ‘The decision had been made utterly without conscious thought or volition on her part.’
    • ‘It is a failure of volition, but it's an overwhelming drive that absolutely crushes volition.’
    • ‘This self-imposed exile was a conscious act of volition.’
    • ‘Its members have no volition, no foresight, no memory, no altruism (nor selfishness, in the strict sense).’
    • ‘Such a course of action, he points out, requires a choice based on morality and a conscious act of volition on his part.’
    • ‘He knew that if he could just stand back a little he could apply his peculiarly deterministic volition to the problem.’
    • ‘It is as if the vortical interplay of thoughts, emotions, and volition is the very source of this sense of ‘self’.’
    • ‘That implies a good deal of volition, but I would argue that those who lose the most have had their capacity for clarity of decision making impaired.’
    • ‘Isn't it a system of different canals, bones and nerves that communicate with one another in a set pattern and without volition?’
    • ‘Yet volition is the one thing that a free individual cannot voluntarily relinquish.’
    • ‘If you cannot have it by its own total free will and volition, it will never be yours.’
    • ‘His mind, his understanding, his heart and affections, his will and volition are all corrupted.’
    • ‘Autonomy is a matter of volition, the ability to act according to our internalised values and desires.’
    • ‘Obviously, drinking and intoxication by alcohol complicated notions of individual autonomy and free volition.’
    • ‘The swallowing center is programmed to discharge by volition.’
    • ‘The entire dream was spent in a state of suspension, traveling, evading, waiting, and watching, without any real acts of volition being carried out.’
    determination, firmness of purpose, fixity of purpose, will power, strength of character, resolution, resolve, resoluteness, purposefulness, single-mindedness, drive, commitment, dedication, doggedness, tenacity, tenaciousness, staying power, backbone, spine
    volition, choice, option, decision, discretion, prerogative

Phrases

    of one's own volition

    • Voluntarily.

      ‘they choose to leave early of their own volition’
      • ‘I know, and it would be a different situation if we had made the choice of our own volition to stay here.’
      • ‘Their eagerness to earn the trust and goodwill of their customers becomes conspicuous when they, on their own volition, urge customers to have a look at the meters to ensure that they get the right quantity of petrol for their money.’
      • ‘I believe that they did it on their own volition.’
      • ‘But most of them are going on their own volition.’
      • ‘My understanding is that he's there on his own volition.’
      • ‘We recently had more than 200 pupils staying on after school to do sport of their own volition.’
      • ‘A prison was one of the most detested of places, one to which people did not come of their own volition, but because they had been brought there much against their will.’
      • ‘Eventually the offenders left of their own volition.’
      • ‘What I don't like is that some truly great people have left the company, not of their own volition.’
      • ‘We're not forced to live here; we live here of our own volition.’

Origin

Early 17th century (denoting a decision or choice made after deliberation): from French, or from medieval Latin volitio(n-), from volo ‘I wish’.