force
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Ability to influence.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fawrsIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɔɹs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Ability to influence; strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigour; might; capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect.
“The force of his eloquence easily persuaded them.”
One possessing or exercising power or influence or authority
physics
A physical quantity that denotes ability to push, pull, twist or accelerate a body and which has a direction and is measured in a unit dimensioned in mass × distance/time² (ML/T²): SI: newton (N); CGS: dyne (dyn).
physics
The influence that produces a change in a physical quantity
countable
Anything that is able to make a substantial change in a person or thing.
Something or anything that has the power to produce a physical effect upon something else, such as causing it to move or change shape.
verb
transitive
To drive (something) by force, to propel (generally + prepositional phrase or adverb).
transitive
To make someone or something do something, often regardless of their will.
transitive
To cause to occur (despite inertia, resistance etc.); to produce through force.
To obtain or win by strength; to take by violence or struggle; specifically, to capture by assault; to storm, as a fortress.
To grow (rhubarb) in the dark, causing it to grow early.
transitive
To forcibly open (a door, lock etc.).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Ability to influence; strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigour; might; capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect.
Used this way, force is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“The force of his eloquence easily persuaded them.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “force of …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Nearby words
- power , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Natural pattern: force of …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use force
- “The force of his eloquence easily persuaded them.”noun
- “He hit with all the force he could muster.”noun
- “He may accomplish by craft in the long run what he cannot do by force and violence in the short one.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Produced by or subjected to forcing.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Characterized by or full of force or strength (often but not necessarily physical).
With full force.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A natural and unavoidable catastrophe that interrupts the expected course of events.
A putout of a base runner who is required to run.
The force applied to a unit area of surface.
A putout of a base runner who is required to run.
Pump used to force a liquid up and expel it under pressure.
A unit of measurement of physical force.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.