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in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English force, fors, forse, from Old French force, from Late Latin fortia, a noun derived from the neuter plural of Latin fortis (“strong”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- (“to rise, high, hill”).
Noun
force (countable and uncountable, plural forces)
- Strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigour; might; capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect.
the force of an appeal, an argument, or a contract
1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 14, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:He was, in the full force of the words, a good man.
- Power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power; violence; coercion.
1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):which now they hold by force, and not by right
- (countable) Anything that is able to make a substantial change in a person or thing.
- (countable, physics) A physical quantity that denotes ability to push, pull, twist or accelerate a body and which has a direction and is measured in a unit dimensioned in mass × distance/time² (ML/T²): SI: newton (N); CGS: dyne (dyn)
- Something or anything that has the power to produce a physical effect upon something else, such as causing it to move or change shape.
2012 March, Henry Petroski, “Opening Doors”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, pages 112–3:A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle—being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place. Applying a force tangential to the knob is essentially equivalent to applying one perpendicular to a radial line defining the lever.
- (countable) A group that aims to attack, control, or constrain.
reinforcemented increased the American force in the area to 9,000
1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):Is Lucius general of the forces?
1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:"A fine man, that Dunwody, yonder," commented the young captain, as they parted, and as he turned to his prisoner. "We'll see him on in Washington some day. He is strengthening his forces now against Mr. Benton out there. […]."
2004 April 15, “Morning swoop in hunt for Jodi's killer”, in The Scotsman:For Lothian and Borders Police, the early-morning raid had come at the end one of biggest investigations carried out by the force, which had originally presented a dossier of evidence on the murder of Jodi Jones to the Edinburgh procurator-fiscal, William Gallagher, on 25 November last year.
- (uncountable) The ability to attack, control, or constrain.
- (countable) A magic trick in which the outcome is known to the magician beforehand, especially one involving the apparent free choice of a card by another person.
- (law) Legal validity.
The law will come into force in January.
- (law) Either unlawful violence, as in a "forced entry", or lawful compulsion.
- (linguistics, semantics, pragmatics) Ability of an utterance or its element (word, form, prosody, ...) to effect a given meaning.
1962, J Gonda, The aspectual function of the R̥gvedic present and aorist, S̓-Gravenhage, Mouton, page 43:
- (humorous or science fiction, with the, often capitalized) A metaphysical and ubiquitous power from the fictional Star Wars universe created by George Lucas. See usage note.
1999 September 28, Mike Selvey, “Crenshaw vindicated by a chain reaction”, in The Guardian:The Europeans tried, my goodness how they tried. But on the day the US proved too strong and too inspired. They were, dammit, just better. And when Leonard's putt dropped they clearly had the force with them as well.
- (usually with "the", in the singular or plural) Synonym of police force
1880, House documents, page 64:Q. All the time that he was on the force?
A. I cannot say that; but there were men on with me when I was on the force who were very good Republicans.
Q. During all this time you have been on the police force?
- 1992, Rage Against the Machine (band), Killing in the Name:
- Some of those that work forces / Are the same that burn crosses
2012 February 1, Janice Kay Johnson, Between Love and Duty, Harlequin, →ISBN, page 77:Niall was on the force, too, a detective in major crimes.
Usage notes
- Adjectives often applied to "force": military, cultural, economic, gravitational, electric, magnetic, strong, weak, positive, negative, attractive, repulsive, good, evil, dark, physical, muscular, spiritual, intellectual, mental, emotional, rotational, tremendous, huge.
- (science fiction): Outside of fiction, the force may be used as an alternative to invoking luck, destiny, or God. For example, the force was with him instead of luck was on his side, or may the force be with you instead of may God be with you.
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Translations
strength or energy of body or mind
power exerted against will or consent
anything that is able to make a big change in person or thing
- Amharic: ኀይል (ḫäyl)
- Arabic: قُوَّة (ar) f (quwwa)
- Argobba: ሀይል (hayl)
- Armenian: ուժ (hy) (už), զորություն (hy) (zorutʿyun)
- Asturian: fuercia (ast) f, fuerza (ast) f
- Avar: гуч (guč), къуват (qxʼuwat)
- Azerbaijani: güc (az), qüvvə (az)
- Bashkir: көс (kös)
- Belarusian: сі́ла f (síla), моц f (moc)
- Bengali: জোর (bn) (jōr)
- Bulgarian: си́ла (bg) f (síla), мощ (bg) f (mošt)
- Catalan: força (ca) f
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 武力 (zh) (wǔlì)
- Corsican: forza (co) f
- Czech: síla (cs), moc (cs) f
- Danish: kraft (da) c
- Dutch: kracht (nl) f
- Finnish: voima (fi)
- French: force (fr) f
- Friulian: fuarce f
- Galician: forza (gl) f
- Ge'ez: ኀይል (ḫäyl)
- Georgian: ძალა (ʒala)
- German: Gewalt (de) f
- Greek: δύναμη (el) f (dýnami), ισχύς (el) f (ischýs), σθένος (el) n (sthénos)
- Hebrew: כוח \ כֹּחַ (he) m (kóakh)
- Hindi: ज़ोर m (zor), बल (hi) m (bal)
- Hungarian: erő (hu)
- Ido: violento (io), koakto (io)
- Indonesian: kekuatan (id)
- Ingush: низ (niz)
- Irish: fórsa m
- Istriot: forsa f
- Italian: forza (it) f
- Japanese: 力 (ja) (ちから, chikara)
- Korean: 힘 (ko) (him)
- Ladin: forza f
- Latin: vis (la) f, potentia f, fortitudo (la) f
- Latvian: spēks (lv) m, vara (lv) f
- Lezgi: гуж (guž), къуват (q̄uvat)
- Lithuanian: jėga f, galia (lt) f
- Macedonian: сила f (sila), моќ f (moḱ)
- Malay: daya (ms), kuasa (ms)
- Malayalam: ബലം (ml) (balaṁ), ശക്തി (ml) (śakti)
- Maori: tūkeri (of the wind, natural phenomena etc)
- Marathi: जोर (jor)
- Neapolitan: fuorza f
- Norwegian: kraft (no) m or f
- Occitan: fòrça (oc) f
- Old Church Slavonic:
- Cyrillic: сила f (sila), мощь f (moštĭ)
- Old East Slavic: сила f (sila), мочь f (močĭ)
- Oromo: humna
- Ottoman Turkish: مكنت (miknet)
- Plautdietsch: Krauft f
- Polish: siła (pl) m, moc (pl) f
- Portuguese: força (pt) f
- Romanian: forță (ro) f
- Romansch: forza f
- Russian: си́ла (ru) f (síla), мощь (ru) f (moščʹ), (slang) дурь (ru) f (durʹ)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: си̏ла f, мо̑ћ f
- Roman: sȉla (sh) f, mȏć f
- Sicilian: forza (scn) f
- Slovak: sila f, moc f
- Slovene: sila (sl) f, moč (sl) f
- Somali: quwad
- Spanish: fuerza (es) f
- Swahili: mabavu (sw)
- Swedish: kraft (sv) c
- Turkish: kuvvet (tr)
- Ukrainian: си́ла (uk) f (sýla), міць (uk) f (micʹ)
- Urdu: زور (ur) m (zor)
- Venetian: forsa f, força f
- Walloon: foice (wa) f
|
anything that has the power to produce an effect upon something else
group that aims to attack, control, or constrain
- Armenian: ուժեր (hy) (užer), զինված ուժեր (hy) (zinvac užer)
- Bashkir: көс (kös)
- Bulgarian: войска (bg) f (vojska)
- Danish: styrke c
- Dutch: macht (nl) f, troep (nl) f
- Finnish: voimat (fi) pl, joukot (fi) pl
- French: forces (fr) pl
- Georgian: ძალა (ʒala)
- German: Kräfte (de) f pl
- Greek: δύναμη (el) f (dýnami), σώμα (el) n (sóma)
- Hebrew: כח (he) m
- Hungarian: erő (hu), osztag (hu), sereg (hu), különítmény (hu), haderő (hu), hadsereg (hu), csapat (hu), egység (hu)
- Ido: trupi (io)
- Irish: fórsa m
- Italian: forza (it) f
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish: ھێز (ckb) (hêz)
- Latin: vis (la) f, potentia f
- Macedonian: сила f (sila)
- Marathi: प्रबळ गट (prabaḷ gaṭ)
- Norwegian: styrke (no) m
- Polish: siły (pl) pl
- Portuguese: força (pt) f
- Russian: отря́д (ru) f (otrjád)
- Slovak: sila f
- Swedish: styrka (sv)
- Turkish: zorlamak (tr)
- Ukrainian: загі́н m (zahín)
- Walloon: foice (wa) f
|
ability to attack, control, or constrain
law: unlawful violence or lawful compulsion
linguistics: ability of an utterance to effect a given meaning
Translations to be checked
See also
References
Etymology 2
From Middle English forcen, from Old French forcier, from Late Latin *fortiāre, from Latin fortia.
Verb
force (third-person singular simple present forces, present participle forcing, simple past and past participle forced)
- (transitive) To violate (a woman); to rape.
1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter V, in Le Morte Darthur, book V:For yf ye were suche fyfty as ye be / ye were not able to make resystence ageynst this deuyl / here lyeth a duchesse deede the whiche was the fayrest of alle the world wyf to syre Howel / duc of Bretayne / he hath murthred her in forcynge her / and has slytte her vnto the nauyl- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 1, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes , book II, London: Val Simmes for Edward Blount , →OCLC:a young woman not farre from mee had headlong cast her selfe out of a high window, with intent to kill herselfe, only to avoid the ravishment of a rascally-base souldier that lay in her house, who offered to force her […].
- (obsolete, reflexive, intransitive) To exert oneself, to do one's utmost.
1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum xxi”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book XVIII, by
William Caxton], published
31 July 1485,
→OCLC; republished as H
Oskar Sommer, editor,
Le Morte Darthur , London:
David Nutt,
,
1889,
→OCLC:
And I pray you for my sake to force yourselff there, that men may speke you worshyp.- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- (transitive) To make someone or something do something, often regardless of their will.
1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:Captain Edward Carlisle […] felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, […]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.
2011 March 23, Tim Webb, Fiona Harvey, The Guardian:Housebuilders had warned that the higher costs involved would have forced them to build fewer homes and priced many homebuyers out of the market.
2024 March 6, “Network News: Southern revises Coastway service”, in RAIL, number 1004, page 12:The hourly Southampton to London Victoria service via Horsham has been axed, as has the direct Littlehampton-Bognor Regis service, forcing passengers to change [trains] at Barnham.
- (transitive) To constrain by force; to overcome the limitations or resistance of.
- (transitive) To drive (something) by force, to propel (generally + prepositional phrase or adverb).
1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:It stuck so fast, so deeply buried lay / That scarce the victor forced the steel away.
c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :to force the tyrant from his seat by war
1655, Thomas Fuller, edited by James Nichols, The Church History of Britain, , new edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: for Thomas Tegg and Son, , published 1837, →OCLC:Ethelbert […] ordered that none should be forced into religion.
2007 November 4, The Guardian:In a groundbreaking move, the Pentagon is compensating servicemen seriously hurt when an American tank convoy forced them off the road.
- (transitive) To cause to occur (despite inertia, resistance etc.); to produce through force.
The comedian's jokes weren't funny, but I forced a laugh now and then.
2009 July 23, “All things to Althingi”, in The Economist:The second problem is the economy, the shocking state of which has forced the decision to apply to the EU.
- (transitive) To forcibly open (a door, lock etc.).
To force a lock.
- To obtain or win by strength; to take by violence or struggle; specifically, to capture by assault; to storm, as a fortress.
- (transitive, baseball) To create an out by touching a base in advance of a runner who has no base to return to while in possession of a ball which has already touched the ground.
Jones forced the runner at second by stepping on the bag.
- (whist) To compel (an adversary or partner) to trump a trick by leading a suit that he/she does not hold.
- (archaic) To put in force; to cause to be executed; to make binding; to enforce.
- (archaic) To provide with forces; to reinforce; to strengthen by soldiers; to man; to garrison.
c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 150, column 1, lines 5–7:Were they not forc’d with thoſe that ſhould be ours, / We might haue met them darefull, beard to beard, / And beate them backward home.
- (obsolete) To allow the force of; to value; to care for.
- To grow (rhubarb) in the dark, causing it to grow early.
Conjugation
Derived terms
Translations
to force sex upon another person
— see rape
to compel someone to do something
- Arabic: أَجْبَرَ (ar) (ʔajbara), اِضْطَرَّ (iḍṭarra)
- Egyptian Arabic: اجبر (ʔagbar)
- Armenian: ստիպել (hy) (stipel), հարկադրել (hy) (harkadrel), բռնանալ (hy) (bṙnanal)
- Asturian: forciar
- Belarusian: прымуша́ць impf (prymušácʹ), прыму́сіць pf (prymúsicʹ), змуша́ць impf (zmušácʹ), зму́сіць pf (zmúsicʹ)
- Bulgarian: принужда́вам (bg) impf (prinuždávam), прину́дя pf (prinúdja), заста́вям (bg) impf (zastávjam), заста́вя (bg) pf (zastávja)
- Catalan: forçar (ca)
- Cebuano: lugos
- Chinese:
- Cantonese: 逼 (bik1)
- Mandarin: 強迫/强迫 (zh) (qiǎngpò), 迫使 (zh) (pòshǐ), 迫 (zh) (pò), 逼迫 (zh) (bīpò), 逼 (zh) (bī), 脅迫/胁迫 (zh) (xiépò)
- Czech: nutit (cs) impf, donutit (cs) pf, přinutit (cs) pf
- Danish: tvinge (da)
- Dutch: dwingen tot (nl), overweldigen (nl)
- Esperanto: devigi
- Estonian: sundima
- Finnish: pakottaa (fi)
- French: forcer (fr), contraindre (fr)
- Galician: obrigar (gl)
- Georgian: იძულებულს ხდის (iʒulebuls xdis)
- German: zwingen (de)
- Gothic: 𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌵𐌹𐌿𐌾𐌰𐌽 (anaqiujan), 𐌱𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (baidjan)
- Greek: αναγκάζω (el) (anagkázo)
- Ancient: ἀναγκάζω (anankázō), βιάζω (biázō)
- Hungarian: kényszerít (hu), erőltet (hu), rákényszerít (hu), ráerőszakol (hu)
- Italian: forzare (it), costringere (it)
- Japanese: 強いる (ja) (しいる, shiiru)
- Korean: 강요하다 (ko) (gang'yohada)
- Latin: obligo
- Latvian: piespiest
- Lithuanian: versti (lt), priversti
- Macedonian: тера impf (tera), присилува impf (prisiluva), принудува impf (prinuduva)
- Malagasy: manery (mg)
- Norman: forchi
- Norwegian: tvinge
- Old English: nīedan
- Polish: zmuszać (pl) impf, zmusić (pl) pf
- Portuguese: forçar (pt), obrigar (pt), compelir (pt)
- Romanian: forța (ro), supune (ro), violenta (ro)
- Russian: заставля́ть (ru) impf (zastavljátʹ), заста́вить (ru) pf (zastávitʹ), принужда́ть (ru) impf (prinuždátʹ), прину́дить (ru) pf (prinúditʹ)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: си̏лити impf, прѝсилити pf, присиља́вати impf
- Roman: sȉliti (sh) impf, prìsiliti (sh) pf, prisiljávati (sh) impf
- Slovak: nútiť impf, donútiť pf, prinútiť pf
- Spanish: obligar (es)
- Swedish: tvinga (sv)
- Telugu: బలాత్కరించు (te) (balātkariñcu)
- Thai: บังคับ (th) (bang-káp)
- Turkish: zorlamak (tr)
- Ukrainian: приму́шувати (uk) impf (prymúšuvaty), приму́сити pf (prymúsyty), зму́шувати impf (zmúšuvaty), зму́сити pf (zmúsyty)
|
to constrain by force; to overcome the limitations or resistance of
to cause to occur, produce through force
baseball: to create an out by touching a base
whist: to compel to trump
Translations to be checked
See also
Etymology 3
From Middle English force, forz, fors, from Old Norse fors (“waterfall”), from Proto-Germanic *fursaz (“waterfall”). Cognate with Icelandic foss (“waterfall”), Norwegian foss (“waterfall”), Swedish fors (“waterfall”). Doublet of foss.
Noun
force (plural forces)
- (countable, Northern England) A waterfall or cascade.
1778, Thomas West, A Guide to the Lakes in Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire:to see the falls or force of the river Kent
Derived terms
Translations
Etymology 4
From Middle English forcen, forsen, a use of force, with confusion of farce (“to stuff”).
Verb
force (third-person singular simple present forces, present participle forcing, simple past and past participle forced)
- To stuff; to lard; to farce.
c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:Wit larded with malice, and malice forced with wit.
Derived terms
Further reading
- “force”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- “force”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “force”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Anagrams
French
Etymology
Inherited from Old French force, from Late Latin fortia, a noun derived from the neuter plural of Latin fortis (“strong”).
Pronunciation
Noun
force f (plural forces)
- force
c. 1656–1662, Blaise Pascal, “Fragment Raisons des effets n° 20 / 21”, in Pensées [Thoughts]:La justice sans la force est impuissante. La force sans la justice est tyrannique.- Justice without force is powerless. Force without justice is tyrannical.
1897, Henri Poincaré, “Les idées de Hertz sur la mécanique [The ideas of Hertz on mechanics]”, in Revue générale des sciences pures et appliquées [General Review of Pure and Applied Sciences], volume 8, page 734:— Qu’est-ce que la force ? C’est, répond Lagrange, une cause qui produit le mouvement d’un corps ou qui tend à le produire. — C’est, dira Kirchhoff, le produit de la masse par laccélération. Mais alors, pourquoi ne pas dire que la masse est le quotient de la force’ par l’accélération ?- "What is force? It is," answers Lagrange, "a cause which produces the movement of a body or which tends to produce it." "It is," Kirchhoff will say, "the product of mass by acceleration." But then why not say that mass is the quotient of force by acceleration?
- strength
Synonyms
Derived terms
Descendants
Adjective
force (invariable)
- (archaic) Many; a lot of; a great quantity of
Verb
force
- inflection of forcer:
- first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- second-person singular imperative
Further reading
Galician
Verb
force
- inflection of forzar:
- first/third-person singular present subjunctive
- third-person singular imperative
- (reintegrationist norm) inflection of forçar:
- first/third-person singular present subjunctive
- third-person singular imperative
Middle French
Etymology
From Old French force.
Noun
force f (plural forces)
- force (physical effort; physical might)
Descendants
Old French
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Late Latin fortia, a noun derived from the neuter plural of Latin fortis (“strong”).
Pronunciation
- (classical) IPA(key): /ˈfɔɾt͡sə/, (northern) /-t͡ʃə/
- (late) IPA(key): /ˈfɔɾsə/, (northern) /-ʃə/
Noun
force oblique singular, f (oblique plural forces, nominative singular force, nominative plural forces)
- strength; might
Related terms
Descendants
Portuguese
Verb
force
- inflection of forçar:
- first/third-person singular present subjunctive
- third-person singular imperative