Coercive

//kəʊˈɜː(ɹ)sɪv// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Displaying a tendency or intent to coerce.

    "The Bush administration is studying options for military strikes against Iran as part of a broader strategy of coercive diplomacy to pressure Tehran to abandon its alleged nuclear development program, according to U.S. officials and independent analysts."

  2. 2
    Such that the ratio of |F(x)| to x approaches infinity as x approaches infinity.
Adjective
  1. 1
    serving or intended to coerce wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bossycompulsivedemandingforcibleheavy-handedobtrusive

Example

More examples

"Shanghaiing is a practice from the mid-19th Northwest United States that consisted of conscripting men as sailors by coercive techniques."

Etymology

From coerce + -ive.

Related phrases

coercive citationcoercive controlcoercive forcecoercive persuasion

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.