What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Voluntary vs Reluctant - What's the difference?

voluntary | reluctant |

As adjectives the difference between voluntary and reluctant

is that voluntary is done, given, or acting of one's own free will while reluctant is opposing; offering resistance (to).

As an adverb voluntary

is (obsolete) voluntarily.

As a noun voluntary

is (music) a short piece of music, often having improvisation, played on a solo instrument.

voluntary

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Done, given, or acting of one's own free will.
  • * N. W. Taylor
  • That sin or guilt pertains exclusively to voluntary action is the true principle of orthodoxy.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • She fell to lust a voluntary prey.
  • Done by design or intention; intentional.
  • If a man accidentally kills another by lopping a tree, it is not voluntary manslaughter.
  • Working or done without payment.
  • Endowed with the power of willing.
  • * Hooker
  • God did not work as a necessary, but a voluntary , agent, intending beforehand, and decreeing with himself, that which did outwardly proceed from him.
  • Of or relating to voluntaryism.
  • a voluntary church, in distinction from an established or state church

    Synonyms

    * discretionary * optional * willful * volitional

    Antonyms

    * compulsory * involuntary * obligatory

    Derived terms

    * voluntarily

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (obsolete) Voluntarily.
  • *1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.4:
  • *:And all that els was pretious and deare, / The sea unto him voluntary brings [...].
  • Noun

    (voluntaries)
  • (music) A short piece of music, often having improvisation, played on a solo instrument
  • A volunteer
  • reluctant

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Opposing; offering resistance (to).
  • * 1819 , Lord Byron, Don Juan , II.108:
  • There, breathless, with his digging nails he clung / Fast to the sand, lest the returning wave, / From whose reluctant roar his life he wrung, / Should suck him back to her insatiate grave [...].
  • * 2008 , Kern Alexander et al., The World Trade Organization and Trade in Services , p. 222:
  • They are reluctant to the inclusion of a necessity test, especially of a horizontal nature, and emphasize, instead, the importance of procedural disciplines [...].
  • Not wanting to take some action; unwilling.
  • She was reluctant to lend him the money

    Synonyms

    * unwilling, disinclined