wayward

adjective/ˈweɪwərd/

Frequency rank: #11,962 of 20,003 in the WORDED list (wordfreq data)

Meaning

Difficult to control or predict; tending to go against what is expected or desired.

Illustration for the English word “wayward”

Example sentence

The teacher struggled to guide her wayward student back to his studies.

Synonyms & related words

More words in ranks 11,901–12,000