coercive
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
- coercively adverb
- coerciveness noun
- noncoercive adjective
- noncoercively adverb
- noncoerciveness noun
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.
Nicole Grajewski, an assistant professor at Sciences Po's Center for International Research, said a US blockade was "not a minor coercive signal" but could rather be considered an effective resumption of the war.
From Barron's • Apr. 13, 2026
Council president Ambassador Sidharto Suryodipuro of Indonesia has proposed Palestinian academic Zeina Jallad to be the Special Rapporteur investigating the human-rights risks of “unilateral coercive measures.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 25, 2026
“Securing this material will require either U.S. ground troops or, after some coercive bargain is reached, international inspectors,” Pauly said.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 15, 2026
And in an administration increasingly comfortable with coercive approaches to homelessness, that tool may not remain narrowly used for long.
From Slate • Mar. 12, 2026
Alternatively, mathematics is sometimes endowed with a coercive character which is somehow capable of determining our future.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
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.
