noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Absence of willpower or decisiveness, especially as a symptom of mental illness. countable, uncountable

   "He felt without volition, plunged into a state of aboulia."

2. 2
   a loss of will power wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

abouliaabouliaabstractionalienationanxietyanxiety equivalent

Antonyms

All antonyms

hyperbouliahyperbulia

Example

More examples

"He felt without volition, plunged into a state of aboulia."

Etymology

From New Latin abūlia, from Ancient Greek ἀβουλία (aboulía, “irresolution”), from ἀ- (a-, “without”) + βουλή (boulḗ, “will”).

Related phrases

mental illness

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.