compulsory

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: com=pul=so=ry

CIDE DICTIONARY

compulsory, a. [LL. compulsorius.].

•  Having the power of compulsion; constraining.  [1913 Webster]
•  Obligatory; enjoined by authority; necessary; due to compulsion.  [1913 Webster]

  "This contribution threatening to fall infinitely short of their hopes, they soon made it compulsory."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

compulsory, adj.
1 required by law or a rule (it is compulsory to keep dogs on leads).
2 essential; necessary.

Idiom

compulsory purchase the enforced purchase of land or property by a local authority etc., for public use.

Derivative

compulsorily adv. compulsoriness n.

Etymology

med.L compulsorius (as compel)

THESAURUS

compulsory

absolute, binding, choiceless, coactive, compelling, compulsatory, compulsive, conclusive, constraining, decisive, decretory, dictated, driving, entailed, exigent, final, hard-and-fast, imperative, imperious, importunate, imposed, inevitable, involuntary, irresistible, irrevocable, mandated, mandatory, must, necessary, necessitous, obligatory, peremptory, prescript, prescriptive, pressing, required, restraining, ultimate, urgent, without appeal, without choice

ROGET THESAURUS

compulsory

Authority

N authority, influence, patronage, power, preponderance, credit, prestige, prerogative, jurisdiction, right, direction, government, divine right, dynastic rights, authoritativeness, absoluteness, absolutism, despotism, jus nocendi, jus divinum, mastery, mastership, masterdom, dictation, control, hold, grasp, grip, gripe, reach, iron sway, fangs, clutches, talons, rod of empire, commission, deputy, permission, at the head, dominant, paramount, supreme, predominant, preponderant, in the ascendant, influential, arbitrary, compulsory, stringent, at one's command, in one's power, in one's grasp, under control, in the name of, by the authority of, de par le Roi, in virtue of, under the auspices of, in the hands of, at one's pleasure, by a dash if the pen, by a stroke of the pen, ex mero motu, ex cathedra, from the chair, the gray mare the better horse, every inch a king.

Compulsion

N compulsion, coercion, coaction, constraint, duress, enforcement, press, conscription, force, brute force, main force, physical force, the sword, ultima ratio, club law, lynch law, mob law, arguementum baculinum, le droit du plus fort, martial law, restraint, necessity, force majeure, Hobson's choice, compelling, coercive, coactive, inexorable, compulsory, compulsatory, obligatory, stringent, peremptory, forcible, not to be trifled with, irresistible, compelled, fain to, by force, by force of arms, on compulsion, perforce, vi et armis, under the lash, at the point of the sword, at the point of the bayonet, forcibly, by a strong arm, under protest, in spite of one's teeth, against one's will, nolens volens, by stress of circumstances, by stress of weather, under press of, de rigueur, with a gun to one's head, I'll make him an offer he can't refuse.