coercive
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Derived 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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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.
