free will

Definitions

1. Voluntary choice; (the power of) unforced, uncoerced choice.
   uncountable
2. The ability to choose one's actions and make choices that are not predetermined by predestination, fate, etc.
   uncountable

Equivalents

23 more languages

العربيةاختيارحُرِّيَّة الْإِرَادَة

Češtinasvobodná vůle

Ελληνικάαυτοβουλίαελεύθερη βούληση

فارسیاختیار

Suomitahdonvapausvapaa tahto

Gaeilgesaorthoil

Gàidhligsaor-thoil

Հայերենազատ կամք

Bahasa Indonesiaikhtiar

IgboAmadi

Italianolibero arbitrio

日本語任意自由意志随意

한국어자유의지

Latinaspōnsvoluntas

Nederlandsvrije wil

Polskiwolna wola

Portuguêslivre-arbítrioprópria vontade

Românăliber arbitru

Русскийсвобо́дная во́ля

Slovenčinaslobodná vôľa

Svenskafri vilja

Tagalogmalayang loob

Türkçeihtiyarözgür irade

Examples

“(insane/worst/best/amazing) use⟳ of free will”

“He did not say⟳ it of his own⟳ free will, but because his captors coerced him.”

“They bound my limbs, depriving me of my free will.”

“I say⟳ therefore, there is no likelyhood, we should imagine⟳, the beasts doe the very same things by a naturall inclination and forced genuitie, which we doe of our owne freewil and industrie.”

“Good my Lord, / To come⟳ thus was I not constrain'd, but did it / On my free-will.”

“I make⟳ a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own⟳ freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee.”

“I am impelled to this course by no one, but follow⟳ it of my own⟳ free-will.”

“We were faced with a great many problems at Potsdam. The most troublesome one was the refugee problem. They were coming- German refugees were coming from Czechoslovakia and then from Poland into Germany. And Stalin said they weren't coming. We explained to him that they were coming, and they were coming from the countries which he occupied. And then he said they were coming of their own⟳ free will and accord. Well, if they came of their own⟳ free will- he was just lying about it because they were not coming of their own⟳ free will. The same kind of free will affected my grandmother when the Federals ran off with her farm and the goods and things on it, and forced her to move⟳ off the farm. These people were forced to move⟳ and the Russians were doing it.”

“Some people deny⟳ that humans have⟳ free will, and argue⟳ that every thought and action is preordained by God.”

“You can bind⟳ my limbs, but you can never deprive me of my free will.”

“What is free will but the power of volition and action, and of thought and speech, to all appearance as of one's self?”

“The new challenge⟳ to free will comes from a different direction: neuroscience's discovery that people's brains are a collection of diversely oriented modules, and that our understanding of our own⟳ intentionality is to a great degree a legitimating fiction which one module in the left hemisphere of the brain retroactively imposes over the decisions different modules make⟳.”

CEFR level