volition means A conscious choice or decision.
volition is pronounced /vəˈlɪʃ(ə)n/.
Why “volition” is a great word
The mental power or faculty of making a conscious choice or decision; the will. From French volition, from Medieval Latin volitiō ('will, volition'), from Latin volō ('to wish, to want, to intend'), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- ('to choose, to want'); first attested in English in the 1610s. Unlike 'instinct' (an innate, automatic impulse) or 'compulsion' (a forced drive that overrides the self), volition is the deliberate exercise of one's own free choice. It is the finger hovering above the send button on a message that will alter a friendship, the breath drawn before a refusal, the foot placed on the first stair when every bone resists ascent—the quiet, definitive architecture of a self asserting itself against the tide of causality.
Etymology
From French volition, from Medieval Latin volitiō (“will, volition”), from Latin volō (“to wish; to want; to mean or intend”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to choose; to want”)) + -tiō (suffix forming nouns relating to some action or the result of an action) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *-tis (suffix forming abstract or action nouns from verbs)).
noun
- A conscious choice or decision.
- The mental power or ability of choosing; the will.e.g.“Out of all the factors that can influence a person’s decision, none can match the power of his or her own volition.”
- A concept that distinguishes whether or not the subject or agent intended something.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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