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
Ellie Cook, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 July 2025
With team members liable for conscription, and constant financial pressures, continuity depends on a mix of good fortune and adaptability.
—Dominique Soguel, Christian Science Monitor, 17 June 2025
Even more Russians fled their country out of opposition to the war or to avoid conscription after Russia launched its partial mobilization in September 2022 and began drafting hundreds of thousands of men.
—Alexander Cooley, Foreign Affairs, 16 Apr. 2025
Norway introduced its own law applying military conscription to both sexes in 2013.
—James Brooks, Los Angeles Times, 3 July 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 29 Jul. 2025.
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