compulsion
/kəmˈpʌlʃən/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.10 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An irrational need or irresistible urge to perform some action, often despite negative consequences.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "During the basketball game, I had a sudden compulsion to have a smoke."
- "It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […]."
- "From the opening of the City & South London Railway independent electric locomotives were used under compulsion of the Board of Trade."
- "But Treaty translator and Ottawa leader Andrew Blackbird described the Treaty as made “not with the free will of the Indians, but by compulsion.”"
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French compulsion, from Late Latin compulsiō, from Latin compellere (“to compel, coerce”); see compel.
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: compulsiō, compellere