different between wilful vs wailful

English

Alternative forms

• willful (American)
• wilfull (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English wilful; equivalent to will +? -ful.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?w?lf?l/, /?w?lf?l/
• Hyphenation: wil?ful

Adjective

wilful (comparative more wilful or wilfuller, superlative most wilful or wilfullest) (British spelling)

1. Intentional; deliberate.

   Synonyms: volitional, voluntary

2. Stubborn and determined.

   Synonyms: obstinate, self-willed, headstrong, spiteful

Derived terms

• unwilful (UK), unwillful (US)
• wilfully (UK), willfully (US)
• wilfulness (UK), willfulness (US)
• wilful blindness (UK), willful blindness (US)
• wilful ignorance (UK), willful ignorance (US)

Translations

English

Etymology

From wail +? -ful.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?we?lf?l/

Adjective

wailful (comparative more wailful, superlative most wailful)

1. (chiefly poetic) Sorrowful; mournful.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.4:

     Farre better I it deeme to die with speed / Then waste in woe and waylfull miserye […]

   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, First Folio 1623:

     You must lay Lime, to tangle her desires / By walefull Sonnets, whose composed Rimes / Should be full fraught with seruiceable vowes.