coercive
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of coercive
Explanation
If you use coercive measures to get people to join your club, it means that you intimidate or force people to make them feel like they have to join. If you use threats to get what you want from other people, your methods can be described as coercive. It can take nothing more than a strong sense of authority to come across as coercive, or the intimidation can take the form of physical threats. When you're coercive, you're demanding obedience without much concern for what the people you coerce need or want. The Latin root is coercere, which means "to control or restrain."
Vocabulary lists containing coercive
Grendel
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Content Summary 1.3: Origins of Complex Urban Societies in the Ancient World
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Content Summary 3.7: Postclassical Americas
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
That must include steps to end the use of any "coercive measure to divert the natural movement of the elephants", it read.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
“The threat is not limited to superficial damage or coercive signalling but now carries a direct and substantial risk to seafarers,” said Dimitris Maniatis, Marisks’s founder and chief executive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
This is happening despite the Supreme Court directing authorities not to take coercive action against those protesters who are facing charges but have no prior criminal record.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
The old common-law “hue and cry” is not a model to romanticize; it could be coercive, punitive, and exclusionary.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
Communal sing-alongs had a faintly coercive quality—that way strangers had of catching each other’s eye as their voices rose—which she was determined to resist.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
