Compulsory

//kəmˈpʌlsəɹi// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Something that is compulsory or required.

    "Delobel and Schoenfelder failed to win the free dance, but they had built a big lead in the compulsories and the original dance."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Required; obligatory; mandatory.

    "The ten-dollar fee was compulsory."

  2. 2
    Having the power of compulsion; constraining.

    "Such compulsory measures are limited."

Adjective
  1. 1
    required by rule wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
mandatoryobligatoryabsolutebindingbindingchoiceless

Example

More examples

"The scholar regards so-called compulsory education as useless."

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin compulsorius, from Latin compulsus. Displaced native Old English ġenīedelīċ.

Related phrases

compulsory acquisitioncompulsory educationcompulsory heterosexualitycompulsory purchasecompulsory purchase ordernon-compulsory

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