forcing

verb

present participle of force
1
as in coercing
to cause (a person) to give in to pressure the public outcry from the scandal forced the mayor to resign road construction forced them to take an alternate route

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in violating
to engage in sexual activity and especially intercourse with a person unwilling or unable to give consent was accused of forcing a woman

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of forcing The French broadcaster said the cyberattack involved forcing a continuous defrost cycle, setting temperatures to 50°C (122°F). — Miranda Jeyaretnam, Time, 13 Oct. 2026 Andrés Zamora, Secuoya Studios’ director of global sales and distribution, said such deals underline the role distribution can play in financing projects, while also forcing producers to defend their position. — Emiliano De Pablos, Variety, 12 Oct. 2026 Wind, rain, and unusually large waves caused by Rachel battered the Southern California coast over the weekend, forcing oceanside residents in Long Beach to evacuate. — ABC News, 12 Oct. 2026 Columbus, for all his accomplishments in exploration, also had a brutal history of killing, raping, and enslaving natives, and forcing cultural assimilation and Christianity during his conquest of the Americas. — Mackenzie Chase, The Washington Examiner, 12 Oct. 2026 Households are grappling with such choices amid soaring healthcare costs, in some cases forcing them to make difficult financial trade-offs during open enrollment, experts said. — Greg Iacurci, CNBC, 12 Oct. 2026 In March of 2022, Willis’s family announced he’d been diagnosed with aphasia, forcing him to step away from acting. — Sam Kashner, Vanity Fair, 12 Oct. 2026 Trump wanted federal voter ID and proof-of-citizenship legislation to take effect immediately, forcing election officials and voters to comply in the middle of the midterms. — Gary Fields, Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2026 Yemen's civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis descended from their northern stronghold, capturing Sanaa and forcing the government to flee into exile in Saudi Arabia. — Ahmed Al-Haj, Arkansas Online, 6 Oct. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for forcing
  1. coercing
  2. violating
  3. compelling
  4. raping
  5. obligating
  6. assaulting
  7. obliging
  8. pressuring
Verb
  • In lawsuits filed last year, Chegg and PMC accused Google of abusing its monopoly power by coercing publishers into supplying content for AI Overviews for free, or risk disappearing from search results.
    — Emma Roth, The Verge, 1 Oct. 2026
  • Playing that cat, a work camp warden coercing Hawke’s character into smuggling gold through the wilderness, is none other than Russell Crowe.
    — Jack Smart, PEOPLE, 1 Sep. 2026
Definition of coercing
Verb
  • Massie’s Hegseth resolution, among other allegations, lays out charges of violating Congress’ war powers and carrying out extrajudicial killings.
    — Nicholas Wu, semafor.com, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Two officers who conducted the internal investigation into Martin’s use of force sued the city for violating the Whistleblower Act, alleging they were retaliated against for recommending to Fitzgerald that Martin be fired.
    — Emily Holshouser, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of violating
Verb
  • Last year, Wangari pushed through a law compelling the government to open more than a hundred registry offices, and making identity documents a fundamental right for every citizen.
    — Vivienne Walt, Time, 30 Sep. 2026
  • The state’s campaign watchdog can seek a court order compelling an influencer to disclose that they were paid, but that can take months.
    — Sophie Austin, Fortune, 8 Aug. 2026
Definition of compelling
Verb
  • The Cornell 7 lawsuit refers to the legal document filed by an unnamed Cornell University student who accused seven men of raping and drugging her at a frat house party in October 2024 — and faced no legal consequences.
    — Payton Turkeltaub, Variety, 7 Oct. 2026
  • Early in 1976, Presnell was accused of raping a 13-year-old girl in Ocala, Florida.
    — Thomas Lake, AJC.com, 7 Oct. 2026
Definition of raping
Verb
  • Your 11th House of Friends lights up as the life-giving Sun energizes that area, squaring obligating Saturn in your 8th House of Intimacy and Shared Resources.
    — Tarot.com, Baltimore Sun, 6 July 2026
  • The unions argue that carrying out permanent layoffs during a funding lapse violates the Antideficiency Act, which bars agencies from obligating funds without congressional authorization, and exceeds executive authority under the Administrative Procedure Act.
    — Robert Alexander, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Oct. 2025
Definition of obligating
Verb
  • Demolishing universities, assaulting the press, violently resegregating the public sphere, ramming degenerative AI down our throats, incarcerating mere zine makers, the regime is systematically repealing the right to culture.
    — Anna Kornbluh, ARTnews.com, 7 Oct. 2026
  • Soon after the photo was taken, pro-Chinese Communist Party activists there began assaulting protesters of Xi's authoritarian regime — though there is no evidence Zhang was involved in any attacks.
    — Adam Yamaguchi, CBS News, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of assaulting
Verb
  • Recipe development can be a self-effacing task, obliging the writer to anticipate the appetites and routines of her imagined reader.
    — Hannah Goldfield, New Yorker, 7 Sep. 2026
  • First is to prevent their further migration by enforcing an international treaty obliging national authorities to treat ballast waters inside incoming ships that may carry such species.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 30 July 2026
Definition of obliging
Verb
  • Families of some of the 67 people who died have been pressuring the Army for months to release the report, which was completed in May.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 8 Oct. 2026
  • Meta immediately took out advertisements in major newspapers, pressuring its competitors to adopt similar guardrails.
    — Darius Tahir, CBS News, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of pressuring

Browse Nearby Words

forcibly
forcing
ford
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Forcing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/forcing. Accessed 14 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Bad Endings and Rough Situations

The Words of the Week - Oct. 9
See More

Popular

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
a cup of tea and a golf ball on tee side by side
Quiz: Sounds Like... Choose the word that sounds like it fits the clue...
See All