force

English Online Dictionary. What means force‎? What does force mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: fôrs, IPA^(key): /fɔɹs/, [fo̞ɹs]
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fɔːs/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) enPR: fōrs, IPA^(key): /fo(ː)ɹs/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /foəs/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)s

Etymology 1

From Middle English force, fors, forse, from Old French force, from Late Latin fortia, a noun derived from the neuter plural of Latin fortis (“strong”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- (“to rise, high, hill”).

Noun

force (countable and uncountable, plural forces)

1. Strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigour; might; capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect.
2. Power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power; violence; coercion.
3. (countable) Anything that is able to make a substantial change in a person or thing.
4. (countable, 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)
5. Something or anything that has the power to produce a physical effect upon something else, such as causing it to move or change shape.
6. (countable) A group that aims to attack, control, or constrain.
8. (uncountable) The ability to attack, control, or constrain.

9. (countable) A magic trick in which the outcome is known to the magician beforehand, especially one involving the apparent free choice of a card by another person.
10. (law) Legal validity.

11. (law) Either unlawful violence, as in a "forced entry", or lawful compulsion.
12. (linguistics, semantics, pragmatics) Ability of an utterance or its element (word, form, prosody, ...) to effect a given meaning.
13. (humorous or science fiction, with the, often capitalized) A metaphysical and ubiquitous power from the fictional Star Wars universe created by George Lucas. See usage note. [1977]
14. (usually with "the", in the singular or plural) Synonym of police force
    • 1992, Rage Against the Machine (band), Killing in the Name:

      Some of those that work forces / Are the same that burn crosses

Usage notes

• Adjectives often applied to "force": military, cultural, economic, gravitational, electric, magnetic, strong, weak, positive, negative, attractive, repulsive, good, evil, dark, physical, muscular, spiritual, intellectual, mental, emotional, rotational, tremendous, huge.
• (science fiction): Outside of fiction, the force may be used as an alternative to invoking luck, destiny, or God. For example, the force was with him instead of luck was on his side, or may the force be with you instead of may God be with you.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• Imperial unit: pound, poundal
• metric unit: newton

References

• force on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From Middle English forcen, from Old French forcier, from Late Latin *fortiāre, from Latin fortia.

Verb

force (third-person singular simple present forces, present participle forcing, simple past and past participle forced)

1. (transitive) To violate (a woman); to rape. [from 14^thc.]
2. (obsolete, reflexive, intransitive) To exert oneself, to do one's utmost. [from 14^thc.]
3. (transitive) To make someone or something do something, often regardless of their will. [from 15^thc.]
4. (transitive) To constrain by force; to overcome the limitations or resistance of. [from 16^thc.]
5. (transitive) To drive (something) by force, to propel (generally + prepositional phrase or adverb). [from 16^thc.]
6. (transitive) To cause to occur (despite inertia, resistance etc.); to produce through force. [from 16^thc.]
7. (transitive) To forcibly open (a door, lock etc.). [from 17^thc.]

8. To obtain or win by strength; to take by violence or struggle; specifically, to capture by assault; to storm, as a fortress.
9. (transitive, baseball) To create an out by touching a base in advance of a runner who has no base to return to while in possession of a ball which has already touched the ground.

10. (whist) To compel (an adversary or partner) to trump a trick by leading a suit that he/she does not hold.
11. (archaic) To put in force; to cause to be executed; to make binding; to enforce.
12. (archaic) To provide with forces; to reinforce; to strengthen by soldiers; to man; to garrison.
13. (obsolete) To allow the force of; to value; to care for.
14. To grow (rhubarb) in the dark, causing it to grow early.

Conjugation

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• coerce: To control by force.

Etymology 3

From Middle English force, forz, fors, from Old Norse fors (“waterfall”), from Proto-Germanic *fursaz (“waterfall”). Cognate with Icelandic foss (“waterfall”), Norwegian foss (“waterfall”), Swedish fors (“waterfall”). Doublet of foss.

Noun

force (plural forces)

1. (countable, Northern England) A waterfall or cascade.

Derived terms

• forcefall

Translations

Etymology 4

From Middle English forcen, forsen, a use of force, with confusion of farce (“to stuff”).

Verb

force (third-person singular simple present forces, present participle forcing, simple past and past participle forced)

1. To stuff; to lard; to farce.

Derived terms

• forcemeat

Further reading

• “force”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “force”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “force”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Cofer, Corfe, corfe

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French force, from Late Latin fortia, a noun derived from the neuter plural of Latin fortis (“strong”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔʁs/
• Rhymes: -ɔʁs
• Homophones: forcent, forces

Noun

force f (plural forces)

1. force
2. strength

Synonyms

• pouvoir
• puissance
• violence

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Polish: forsa
• → Azerbaijani: fors

Adjective

force (invariable)

1. (archaic) Many; a lot of; a great quantity of

Verb

force

1. inflection of forcer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “force”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Galician

Verb

force

1. inflection of forzar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative
2. (reintegrationist norm) inflection of forçar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French force.

Noun

force f (plural forces)

1. force (physical effort; physical might)

Descendants

• French: force
  • → Polish: forsa
  • → Azerbaijani: fors

Old French

Alternative forms

• forche (northern)
• fors

Etymology

From Late Latin fortia, a noun derived from the neuter plural of Latin fortis (“strong”).

Pronunciation

• (classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔɾt͡sə/, (northern) /-t͡ʃə/
• (late) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔɾsə/, (northern) /-ʃə/

Noun

force oblique singular, f (oblique plural forces, nominative singular force, nominative plural forces)

1. strength; might

Related terms

• esforcer
• esfort
• fort
• forteresce

Descendants

• Middle French: force
  • French: force
    • → Polish: forsa
    • → Azerbaijani: fors
• Walloon: foice
• → Middle English: force, fors, forse
  • English: force
  • → Irish: fórsa

Portuguese

Verb

force

1. inflection of forçar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative