self-will
"self-will" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“self-will” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The quality of being willful and ignoring opposition.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | self-will |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “self-will” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
self-will is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The quality of being willful and ignoring opposition.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for self-will, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English self-wil, self-wille, from Old English sylfwill, selfwill, selfwille (“self-will”), from Proto-West Germanic *selbawilljō, from Proto-Germanic *selbawiljô (“self-will”), equivalent to self- + will. Cognate with Old High German selbwillo,… The correct English form is self-will, spelled S-E-L-F---W-I-L-L.
Definition
- 1The quality of being willful and ignoring opposition.
Etymology
From Middle English self-wil, self-wille, from Old English sylfwill, selfwill, selfwille (“self-will”), from Proto-West Germanic *selbawilljō, from Proto-Germanic *selbawiljô (“self-will”), equivalent to self- + will. Cognate with Old High German selbwillo, selpwillo, Old Norse sjalfvili.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “self-will”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-E-L-F---W-I-L-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.