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wayward
[ wey-werd ]
adjective
- turned or turning away from what is right or proper; willful; disobedient:
a wayward son; wayward behavior.
Synonyms: intractable, refractory, unruly, obstinate, stubborn, headstrong, contrary
- swayed or prompted by caprice; capricious:
a wayward impulse; to be wayward in one's affections.
- turning or changing irregularly; irregular:
a wayward breeze.
Synonyms: changeable, inconstant, unsteady
wayward
/ ˈweɪwəd /
adjective
- wanting to have one's own way regardless of the wishes or good of others
- capricious, erratic, or unpredictable
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Derived Forms
- ˈwaywardness, noun
- ˈwaywardly, adverb
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Other Words From
- wayward·ly adverb
- wayward·ness noun
- un·wayward adjective
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Word History and Origins
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Word History and Origins
Origin of wayward1
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Synonym Study
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Example Sentences
It was an intimate and somber plea, like a parent opening an intervention with a wayward child.
How about the man who created her—a lover of women who lived with a wife, his lover, their children, and a wayward librarian?
The story of a wayward anesthesia trainee who took a near fatal dose of fentanyl hit the news this week.
Not to worry, Bob, those wayward thoughts are portals of discovery for an interviewer.
A regal few were spiritual counselors, like Weberman, bringing wayward kids and teens back from the brink of ruined lives.
But agitation unlocks wayward fancies and sends them scurrying inopportunely across the very foreground of the mind.
Mariamne had grown more fantastic, and capricious, and wayward than ever.
A large stone set in a secure place surely is a better boundary than a wayward stream whose course is changed by every freshet.
Observe the wayward boy whose chief inheritance is a wild, wilful nature.
From this companionship a group of wayward children may be formed.
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