compelled
Americanadjective
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secured or brought about by force.
Statements made in a compelled interview may not be used in a criminal proceeding.
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forced or driven to a particular course of action, often by an irresistible internal urge.
I haven't felt so compelled to learn as much as I can about something since my fascination with Slavic folk music!
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of compelled
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.
"If a woman is compelled to struggle so hard for her daughters' education, it shows that government education schemes are not reaching people adequately," he said.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
You may sense what I’m talking about whenever you’re compelled to answer the “ba-dee-ya” call in Earth Wind & Fire’s “September.”
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026
It’s the surrender — that willingness to let go and let others in — that I find myself most compelled by when I enter his gaze.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
Father Damien is so compelled in the 1880s to tend to a Hawaiian flock of lepers—among whom he lives and whose indigenous language he learns—that he ultimately contracts the disease from them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
I know there’s always a certain kind of reader who will be compelled to ask, But what really happened?
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.
