volition.

The faculty or act of choosing or willing a course of action.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• of one’s own volition
• conscious volition

On the page

She returned of her own volition, though no one believed it at first.

The account left uncertain how much conscious volition had shaped the choice.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary. Forms: Singular volition; plural volitions. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.