as in pressure
the use of power to impose one's will on another
in that class I read books under compulsion that I ordinarily wouldn't have considered
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of compulsion
In a clinical setting, mental health experts call such actions compulsions – behaviors that feel impossible to resist – are fueled by obsessive thoughts and eventually begin to interfere with a person’s ability to lead a normal, healthy life.
—
Jordyn Tovey,
The Conversation,
22 May 2026
Alcaraz is aware of the public compulsion to analyze his looks.
—
José Criales-Unzueta,
Vanity Fair,
12 May 2026
Writing arrived as a compulsion, transmuting grief into something palatable and art-like, like a View-Master stereoscope with kaleidoscope slides.
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Eli Raphael,
PEOPLE,
10 May 2026
The episodes will focus on the interview subject’s compulsion to create, an obsession for Mason who grew up with a stepfather who was a portrait artist.
—
Los Angeles Times,
1 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for compulsion
Jordyn Tovey,
The Conversation,
22 May 2026
Alcaraz is aware of the public compulsion to analyze his looks.
—
José Criales-Unzueta,
Vanity Fair,
12 May 2026
Writing arrived as a compulsion, transmuting grief into something palatable and art-like, like a View-Master stereoscope with kaleidoscope slides.
—
Eli Raphael,
PEOPLE,
10 May 2026
The episodes will focus on the interview subject’s compulsion to create, an obsession for Mason who grew up with a stepfather who was a portrait artist.
—
Los Angeles Times,
1 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for compulsion
Recent Examples of Synonyms for compulsion
Noun
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These episodes have been triggered by intense heat domes — stubborn areas of high pressure that lock hot air in place — and are clearly supercharged by global warming, experts say.
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Even as the communist country proposes reforms, the United States continues a pressure campaign, ramping up economic sanctions and maintaining an oil embargo that has plunged much of the island into darkness.
Noun
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Her colleague Maria Amato adds a harder constraint — the most effective leadership development happens on the job, inside the relationships management layers exist to create.
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How supply chains are slowing defense production S&P Global Ratings found the same constraint.
Noun
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House Bill 582, known as the Survivor Justice Act, allows courts to consider reduced sentences for victims of domestic violence or human trafficking who committed crimes under coercion.
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Equality without liberty can become coercion in the name of fairness.
Noun
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The 16-count indictment against Republican Liz Murrill, handed up Thursday by a New Orleans grand jury, charges Louisiana’s first female attorney general with intimidation and malfeasance.
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The 16-count indictment handed up Thursday by a New Orleans grand jury accused Murrill, the state's first female attorney general, with intimidation and malfeasance.
Noun
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Was remembers the tumult, violence and hope that came out of that era in his hometown of Detroit.
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But the comments from Raia provide the clearest public indication yet that the FBI's Joint Mission Center, established earlier this year to coordinate the bureau's response to domestic political violence, is producing tangible investigative results.
Cite this Entry
“Compulsion.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/compulsion. Accessed 4 Jul. 2026.
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