as in unwillingness
a lack of willingness or desire to do or accept something
the mice showed an odd reluctance to eat the cheese we had put out for them
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Recent Examples of reluctance
At the ownership level, there seems to be a preference for sustainability and flexibility, and a reluctance to take resources away from future teams and limit potential opportunities down the road.
—
Patrick Mooney, New York Times, 7 Jan. 2026
Advertisement Sen says that overall, though, many of the companies’ reluctance is for good reason.
—Rebecca Schneid, Time, 7 Jan. 2026
Issues stemmed all season from Eberflus’ reluctance to run man coverage and send blitzes on a consistent basis.
—Nick Harris, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 6 Jan. 2026
My reluctance isn’t due to any potential inconvenience or legal liability, but rather the fear of facing a sick passenger without the basic equipment or medications needed to help them.
—Tushara Surapaneni, Chicago Tribune, 4 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for reluctance
Recent Examples of Synonyms for reluctance
Noun
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Boston’s unwillingness to budge on the NTC, more than anything, sunk them.—
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Her three assists were offset by two third-quarter turnovers, and Schaefer expressed his discontent with UT's overall unwillingness to feed the ball to center Kyla Oldacre, who had 16 points on nine shots.—
Noun
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Big money’s hesitancy Wall Street hasn’t jumped on board with the same fervor as the average Joe.—
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Their efforts were met with hesitancy from some families — installing sensors required Ayala to enter homes for installation, and some families had privacy concerns around providing data to the sensors.—
Noun
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That reticence may well have helped to diminish his reputation; indeed, his contribution has been largely eclipsed by that of his eldest son, the abstract painter and sculptor Ben Nicholson.—
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Still, the focus on Venezuela could help distract from Putin’s reticence to strike a deal with Ukraine.—
Noun
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Citing Chinese academic research, the report notes that financial and time pressures, especially the cost and burden of child care, are major factors contributing to families’ hesitance.—
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The judge continued to echo his hesitance following the reveal and shared an Instagram Stories post posing the question for fans.—
Noun
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No doubt that came after conversations with his leadership core of players, too.—
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Now two new polls show serious doubts among Americans about acquiring Greenland, a self-governing, autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark, a longstanding NATO ally.—
Noun
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The same disinclination would normally apply.—
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Beauty’s at-times reluctance to embrace TikTok Shop as a channel mirrors the industry’s longtime disinclination toward Amazon, an attitude that has shifted in recent years as the e-commerce giant’s beauty business has grown at an incontrovertible clip.—
Cite this Entry
“Reluctance.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/reluctance. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
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