conscription

noun

con·​scrip·​tion kən-ˈskrip-shən 

: compulsory enrollment of persons especially for military service : draft

During the war the armed forces were heavily dependent on conscription.

Did you know?

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

young people who face conscription into the army

Recent Examples on the Web

There are more than 1 million active-duty personnel and conscription is mandatory. —Oscar Holland, CNN, 19 Mar. 2025

But with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago, Thailand’s Phuket Island is transforming into a different kind of getaway: a refuge for Russians fleeing military conscription, political oppression and the economic impact of Western sanctions. —Stephanie Yang, Los Angeles Times, 25 Feb. 2025

Now, Jubair is under threat of another conscription. —Adam Ferguson, New York Times, 28 Dec. 2024

Thus, conscription has become one of the Kremlin's tools to compensate for heavy losses at the front ... —Josh Hammer, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Apr. 2025

Word History

Etymology

see conscript entry 1

First Known Use

1800, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for conscription

• ascription
• decryption
• description
• egyptian
• encryption
• inscription
• prescription
• proscription
• subscription
• transcription
• circumscription
• misdescription