Wont
adj, noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 One's habitual way of doing things; custom, habit, practice. archaic, humorous, uncountable, usually
"He awoke at the crack of dawn, as was his wont."
- 2 an established custom wordnet
- 1 To make (someone) used to; to accustom. archaic, transitive
"I have heard it remarked by the old farmers, that when beasts are first transferred from one place to another, that if they keep them without food for two or three days, it will go far towards wonting them to their new situation."
- 2 To be accustomed (to something), to be in the habit (of doing something). archaic, intransitive
"What be the ſweet delights of learning a treaſure, / That wont with Comick ſock to beautify / The painted Theaters, and fill with pleaſure / The liſtners eyes, and eares with melodie; […]"
- 1 Accustomed or used (to or with a thing), accustomed or apt (to do something). not-comparable
"He is wont to complain loudly about his job."
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"We were wont to meet at that pleasant spot."
Etymology
From Old English gewunod, past participle of ġewunian (“to be accustomed to, dwell”), possibly as a conflation of wone (“custom, habit, practice”) and wont (participle adjective, below). Compare German Low German Gewohnte (“custom, habit”), Dutch gewoonte, Swedish van. Likely related to wone, wonder, wean, and win.
From Middle English wont, iwoned, from Old English ġewunod, past participle of ġewunian. Cognate with German gewohnt and Dutch gewend.
From Middle English wonten (“to accustom”), from wont (adjective). See above.
Related phrases
More for "wont"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.