conscription
noun
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With its scrip- root, conscription means basically writing someone's name on a list—a list that, unfortunately, a lot of people usually don't want to be on. Conscription has existed at least since ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom (27th century B.C.), though universal conscription has been rare throughout history. Forms of conscription were used by Prussia, Switzerland, Russia, and other European powers in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the U.S., conscription was first applied during the Civil War, by both the North and the South. In the North there were pockets of resistance, and the draft led to riots in several cities. The U.S. abandoned conscription at the end of the war and didn't revive it until World War I.
Examples of conscription in a Sentence
Mitch Wallace, Forbes.com, 14 May 2025
Netanyahu’s government has proven astonishingly durable, despite overseeing the largest security breach in the country’s history, but the demand for equal conscription for all threatens to destabilize it.
—Ruth Margalit, New Yorker, 14 May 2025
The military continues to commit daily acts of violence against civilians, and since April 2024 has enforced mandatory conscription, driving a mass exodus from the country.
—Emily Fishbein, Hpan Ja Brang, The Dial, 17 Apr. 2025
Taiwan’s conscription pool is projected to halve by 2050.
—Michael Beckley, Foreign Affairs, 16 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for conscription
Cite this Entry
“Conscription.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conscription. Accessed 30 May. 2025.
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