COERCION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does coercion mean? 

• COERCION (noun)
  The noun COERCION has 2 senses:

1. the act of compelling by force of authority

2. using force to cause something to occur

  Familiarity information: COERCION used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COERCION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of compelling by force of authority

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("coercion" is a kind of...):

enforcement (the act of enforcing; ensuring observance of or obedience to)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "coercion"):

terror (the use of extreme fear in order to coerce people (especially for political reasons))

Derivation:

coerce (to cause to do through pressure or necessity, by physical, moral or intellectual means)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Using force to cause something to occur

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

coercion; compulsion

Context example:

they didn't have to use coercion

Hypernyms ("coercion" is a kind of...):

causation; causing (the act of causing something to happen)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "coercion"):

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)

Derivation:

coerce (to cause to do through pressure or necessity, by physical, moral or intellectual means)

 Context examples 

This reciprocal relationship plays out in the wild and occurs without any conventional kind of ‘training’ or coercion.

(How humans and wild Honeyguide birds call each other to help, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

While you looked so, I should be certain that whatever charter you might grant under coercion, your first act, when released, would be to violate its conditions.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I overcame the extreme reluctance of the natives—a reluctance which extends even to talk upon the subject—and by judicious persuasion and gifts, aided, I will admit, by some threats of coercion, I got two of them to act as guides.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)