as in intentionally
with full awareness of what one is doing
willfully chose to risk pneumonia by jumping into a freezing lake on a dare
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Recent Examples of willfully
This willfully blinkered vision, or, more precisely, reëlection platform, ignores the cost in global opinion along with the moral and political fractures within Israel itself.
—
David Remnick, New Yorker, 19 Oct. 2025
This isn’t to say that the women don’t deserve some privacy, but they are getting paid to share their lives with the public; willfully mischaracterizing what’s happening in their lives during the course of filming goes against the very nature of the show.
—Brian Moylan, Vulture, 17 Oct. 2025
Hernandez Santana was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of firing a 9 mm handgun within a school zone, possessing a firearm within a school zone and willfully or maliciously interfering with or causing interference to any radio communications of any station in the September shooting.
—Darrell Smith, Sacbee.com, 16 Oct. 2025
Often sustainability no longer implies that slave labor wasn’t deployed, or that there hasn’t been a purposeful reduction in the tuna population, but instead that there has been some vague dialogue entered into about not willfully raping the planet.
—Louis J. Esterhazy, Footwear News, 11 Oct. 2025
And suggesting that Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed should be on a Ryder Cup team in 2025 is both willfully obtuse and indicative of a person looking back, not forward.
—Hugh Kellenberger, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2025
In 1494, for example, mathematician and ‘father of modern accounting’ Luca Pacioli wrote of Venetian merchants willfully rendering their ledgers illegible.
—Allie Garfinkle, Fortune, 1 Oct. 2025
Hayes previously pleaded guilty to knowingly and willfully transmitting in interstate commerce a communication containing a threat to injure the person of another, according to prosecutors.
—Julia Marnin, Miami Herald, 12 Sep. 2025
Time and time again, college students willfully engage in religious discussions if the intentions of all parties are authentic – often occurring between friends and faculty who adopt critical and inclusive pedagogical approaches in the classroom.
—Matthew Mayhew, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
David Remnick, New Yorker, 19 Oct. 2025
This isn’t to say that the women don’t deserve some privacy, but they are getting paid to share their lives with the public; willfully mischaracterizing what’s happening in their lives during the course of filming goes against the very nature of the show.
—Brian Moylan, Vulture, 17 Oct. 2025
Hernandez Santana was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of firing a 9 mm handgun within a school zone, possessing a firearm within a school zone and willfully or maliciously interfering with or causing interference to any radio communications of any station in the September shooting.
—Darrell Smith, Sacbee.com, 16 Oct. 2025
Often sustainability no longer implies that slave labor wasn’t deployed, or that there hasn’t been a purposeful reduction in the tuna population, but instead that there has been some vague dialogue entered into about not willfully raping the planet.
—Louis J. Esterhazy, Footwear News, 11 Oct. 2025
And suggesting that Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed should be on a Ryder Cup team in 2025 is both willfully obtuse and indicative of a person looking back, not forward.
—Hugh Kellenberger, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2025
In 1494, for example, mathematician and ‘father of modern accounting’ Luca Pacioli wrote of Venetian merchants willfully rendering their ledgers illegible.
—Allie Garfinkle, Fortune, 1 Oct. 2025
Hayes previously pleaded guilty to knowingly and willfully transmitting in interstate commerce a communication containing a threat to injure the person of another, according to prosecutors.
—Julia Marnin, Miami Herald, 12 Sep. 2025
Time and time again, college students willfully engage in religious discussions if the intentions of all parties are authentic – often occurring between friends and faculty who adopt critical and inclusive pedagogical approaches in the classroom.
—Matthew Mayhew, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for willfully
Adverb
-
Sanders has since been charged with intentionally abandoning a child younger than 15 without intent to return, a third-degree felony charge in Texas, according to court documents.—
Bailey Richards,
PEOPLE,
26 Oct. 2025
-
In February 2025, umpire Pat Hoberg was fired by MLB for sharing his legal sports gambling accounts with a friend who bet on baseball games and for intentionally deleting electronic messages pertinent to the league’s investigation.—
Ryan Canfield,
FOXNews.com,
25 Oct. 2025
Adverb
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Perhaps its message is meant to be deliberately ambiguous—or maybe there’s no message at all.—
Shirley Li,
The Atlantic,
22 Oct. 2025
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The pending trial is one of many alleging that social media technology companies have deliberately created platforms and features that cause harm to younger users and damage their mental health.—
Samantha Subin,
CNBC,
21 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Willfully.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/willfully. Accessed 26 Oct. 2025.
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