COMPULSION
Dictionary entry overview: What does compulsion mean?
• COMPULSION (noun)
The noun COMPULSION has 3 senses:
1. an urge to do or say something that might be better left undone or unsaid
2. an irrational motive for performing trivial or repetitive actions against your will
3. using force to cause something
Familiarity information: COMPULSION used as a noun is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
• COMPULSION (noun)
Meaning:
An urge to do or say something that might be better left undone or unsaid
Classified under:
Nouns denoting goals
Synonyms:
compulsion; irresistible impulse
Hypernyms ("compulsion" is a kind of...):
irrational impulse (a strong spontaneous and irrational motivation)
Meaning:
An irrational motive for performing trivial or repetitive actions against your will
Classified under:
Nouns denoting goals
Synonyms:
obsession; compulsion
Hypernyms ("compulsion" is a kind of...):
irrational motive (a motivation that is inconsistent with reason or logic)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "compulsion"):
onomatomania (obsession with a particular word which the person uses repeatedly or which intrudes into consciousness)
Meaning:
Using force to cause something
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Synonyms:
coercion; compulsion
Context examples:
though pressed into rugby under compulsion I began to enjoy the game / they didn't have to use coercion
Hypernyms ("compulsion" is a kind of...):
causation; causing (the act of causing something to happen)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "compulsion"):
constructive eviction; eviction (action by a landlord that compels a tenant to leave the premises (as by rendering the premises unfit for occupancy); no physical expulsion or legal process is involved)
