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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

reluctance.

Unwillingness to do something.

10 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɹɪˈlʌktəns/
  1. Unwillingness to do something.

    countable · uncountable
    Our new dog shows reluctance to go on walks, preferring to be indoors.
  2. Hesitancy in taking some action.

    countable · uncountable
  3. Defiance, disobedience.

    archaic · countable · uncountable
  4. That property of a magnetic circuit analogous to resistance in an electric circuit.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree English reluct Proto-Indo-European *-onts Latin -ns Latin -āns Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -ia Latin -āntia Old French -ancebor. Middle English -aunce English -ance English reluctance From reluct + -ance. From Latin relū̆ctor (“to struggle against, oppose, resist”) + -ance, from re- (“back”) + luctor (“to struggle”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.