as in randomly
without definite aim, direction, rule, or method
they were in a hurry, so they just tossed everything into the room willy-nilly, leaving it to be all sorted out later
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Recent Examples of willy-nilly
However, while willy-nilly scrubbing is ill-advised, there is more than one way to clean stainless steel.
—
Hallie Milstein, Southern Living, 9 Nov. 2025
Surtain, the reigning defensive player of the year, does not lather such compliments upon wideouts willy-nilly.
—Luca Evans, Denver Post, 12 Sep. 2025
Walter Sam believes in the magical power of accurately wielding words as well as the bad juju that comes with spouting them all willy-nilly.
—Manuel Muñoz, Literary Hub, 11 Sep. 2025
Many therapists are already willy-nilly entering data about clients and patients into off-the-shelf publicly available LLMs.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for willy-nilly
Hallie Milstein, Southern Living, 9 Nov. 2025
Surtain, the reigning defensive player of the year, does not lather such compliments upon wideouts willy-nilly.
—Luca Evans, Denver Post, 12 Sep. 2025
Walter Sam believes in the magical power of accurately wielding words as well as the bad juju that comes with spouting them all willy-nilly.
—Manuel Muñoz, Literary Hub, 11 Sep. 2025
Many therapists are already willy-nilly entering data about clients and patients into off-the-shelf publicly available LLMs.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for willy-nilly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for willy-nilly
randomly
Adverb
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The multiplier is automatically included and randomly assigned for every play at the time of purchase.—
Tanya Wildt,
Freep.com,
7 Mar. 2026
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While that’s a common approach for rare diseases, it isn’t considered as reliable as studies where patients are randomly assigned to get treatment or a placebo.—
Bloomberg,
Oc Register,
5 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Willy-nilly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/willy-nilly. Accessed 10 Mar. 2026.
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