perforce

[ per-fawrs, -fohrs ]
See synonyms for perforce on Thesaurus.com
adverb
  1. of necessity; necessarily; by force of circumstance: The story must perforce be true.

Origin of perforce

1
1300–50; per + force; replacing Middle English par force<Middle French

Words Nearby perforce

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use perforce in a sentence

  • That hope also went, perforce, into the deeply compromised political system that Obama would lead.

  • Its use, in place of the hard and empty-toned Diapasons to which we had perforce become accustomed, is rapidly growing.

  • This in English would be meaningless, and was perforce replaced by what seems to be a fair equivalent.

    Cyrano de Bergerac | Edmond Rostand
  • The fevered mules plunged in headlong and drank greedily; the riders were perforce obliged to slake their thirst after them.

    Overland | John William De Forest
  • Had they spoken she would perforce have believed them; but then, as she herself said, it would have made "so little difference."

    With Edged Tools | Henry Seton Merriman

British Dictionary definitions for perforce

perforce

/ (pəˈfɔːs) /


adverb
  1. by necessity; unavoidably

Origin of perforce

1
C14: from Old French par force; see per, force 1

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012