wont
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /wəʊnt/
ipa: /wɒnt/
enpr: wŏnt
enpr: wônt
enpr: wōnt
enpr: wŭnt
ipa: /wɑnt/
ipa: /wɔnt/
ipa: /woʊnt/
ipa: /wʌnt/
ipa: /wʊnt/
rhymes: -əʊnt
rhymes: -ɒnt
rhymes: -ɔːnt
rhymes: -ʌnt
homophone: want (one pronunciation)
homophone: won't (one pronunciation)
Etymology: From Middle English wont, iwoned, from Old English ġewunod, past participle of ġewunian. Cognate with German gewohnt and Dutch gewend.
Senses: examples: text: He is wont to complain loudly about his job.
text: This is the ſuteltie of Satan, who vnder the shew of godly matters, deceaueth the vnaduyſed, as we are wont to ſay, that in the honye lyeth hidden the poiſon.
ref: 1556, Anthoni de Adamo [Agostino Mainardi], “The Examinacion of the Kyrie Eleeson and of the Gloria in Excelsis Deo, and how that Many Praiers after the Gloria in Excelsis, be Wicked, and that the Epistle and Gospell, and Generally the Whole Worde of God in the Masse, are Vnworthely and Euell Fauoredly Handled”, in An Anatomi, that is to Say a Parting in Peeces of the Mass. Which Discouereth the Horrible Errors, and the Infinit Abuses Vnknowen to the People, aswel of the Mass as of the Mass Book, very Profitable, yea Most Necessary for al Christian People. With a Sermon of the Sacrament of Thankesgyuyng in the End, whiche Declareth whether Christ be Bodyly in the Sacrament or Not, [Strasbourg]: [Printed by the heirs of W. Köpfel], →OCLC, page 19:
text: […] I haue not that Alacrity of Spirit, / Nor cheere of Minde that I was wont to haue.
ref: c. 1591, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: With the Landing of Earle Richmond, and the Battell at Bosworth Field”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act V, scene iii, page 201:
text: On ſome fond breaſt the parting ſoul relies, / Some pious drops the cloſing eye requires; / Ev'n from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, / Ev'n in our Aſhes live their wonted Fires.
ref: 1751, [Thomas Gray], An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church-yard, London: Printed for R[obert] Dodsley in Pall-Mall; and sold by M[ary] Cooper in Pater-noster-Row, →OCLC; republished as “An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard”, in A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands, volume IV, 2nd edition, London: Printed by J. Hughs, for R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, at Tully's-Head in Pall-Mall, 1758, →OCLC, page 5
text: He could read English Manuscripts very elegantly, elegantissime: he was wont to preach to the people in the English tongue, though according to the dialect of Norfolk, where he had been brought up; […]
ref: 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “The Abbot’s Ways”, in Past and Present, book II (The Ancient Monk), London: Chapman & Hall, →OCLC, page 83:
text: But while Katy Perry similarly threw herself into the spirit of the event – crowdsurfing, dancing with a security guard, charming the audience – her peculiar combination of newfound political conscience and longstanding predisposition to DayGlo cartoonishness was simultaneously intriguing and baffling, as a woman delivering between-song speeches about the necessity of taking back power surrounded by dancers dressed as flowers and giant pom-poms covered in fluorescent fur was perhaps wont to be.
ref: 2017 June 26, Alexis Petridis, “Glastonbury 2017 verdict: Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Lorde, Stormzy and more”, in the Guardian:
text: As many Ukrainians are wont to do, Mr. Hlibovytsky refers to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, under which a newly independent Ukraine gave up the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal in exchange for assurances from world powers, including Russia, that the “inviolability” of its borders would be respected.
ref: 2024 November 21, Howard LaFranchi, “Why many in Ukraine oppose a ‘land for peace’ formula to end the war”, in The Christian Science Monitor:
glosses: Accustomed or used (to or with a thing), accustomed or apt (to do something).
Derived terms: unwont
use and wont
wontly
Related terms: prone to
used to