volitional

comparative more volitional · superlative most volitional

1. formalnot comparableOf or relating to the volition or will.

   Little by little the whole subject population of the world was fitted with the instruments of volitional control. The government was now practically omnipotent.

   1942, Olaf Stapledon, Darkness and the Light, chapter 5, iii

   1 more example

   Stern and Karl Bühler noticed independently that a child’s first “No” has a volitional meaning and that the significance as a simple denial of fact appears several months afterwards.

   1957, Leo Kanner, Child Psychology, 3rd edition, Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, Part Two, Chapter 4, p. 42

2. comparableDone by conscious, personal choice; not based on external principles; not accidental.

   A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals to discovery.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   “Loving on” someone—whether he likes it or not—posits love as a volitional activity, an act not of passion but of will.

   2016 July 28, Rebecca Mead, “The Power of ‘Love’ in Politics”, in The New Yorker

   Synonyms: deliberate

3. not comparablegrammarExpressing intention, hortation, supposition, or inclusive invitation.

   Synonyms: conjectural, hortative, presumptive, tentative

plural volitionals

1. grammarThe volitional grammatical mood.
2. grammarA form of a word inflected for the volitional mood; a volitional form.