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Compulsory vs Compel - What's the difference?

compulsory | compel |

As an adjective compulsory

is required; obligatory; mandatory.

As a noun compulsory

is something that is compulsory or required.

As a verb compel is

to drive together, round up.

compulsory

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Required; obligatory; mandatory.
  • * 1827 , A. D. Jr., Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal , A. and C. Black, page 212:
  • They are entirely private concerns, established by individual teachers, and attendance upon them is no more compulsory than attendance on our dispensaries.
  • * 1996 , (Ugo Pagano), Democracy and Efficiency in the Economic Enterprise , page 73:
  • Some might agree that membership in the firm is perhaps more compulsory than membership in a municipality, but balk at applying the analogy to the nation.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Peter Wilby)
  • , volume=189, issue=6, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Finland spreads word on schools , passage=Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.}}
  • Having the power of compulsion; constraining.
  • Synonyms

    * mandatory

    Antonyms

    * (required) optional

    Noun

    (compulsories)
  • Something that is compulsory or required.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2008, date=March 22, author=The Associated Press, title=French Victory in Ice Dance, work=New York Times citation
  • , passage=Delobel and Schoenfelder failed to win the free dance, but they had built a big lead in the compulsories and the original dance. }}

    compel

    English

    Verb

  • (transitive, archaic, literally) To drive together, round up (rfex)
  • To overpower; to subdue.
  • * 1917 , , King Coal , ch. 16,
  • She had one of those perfect faces, which irresistibly compel the soul of a man.
  • To force, constrain or coerce.
  • Logic compels''' the wise, while fools feel '''compelled by emotions.
  • * 1600 , , Julius Caesar , act 5, sc. 1,
  • Against my will, / As Pompey was, am I compell’d to set / Upon one battle all our liberties.
  • * Hallam
  • Wolsey compelled the people to pay up the whole subsidy at once.
  • To exact, extort, (make) produce by force.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Commissions, which compel from each / The sixth part of his substance.
  • * 1912 , , Sky Island , ch. 14,
  • The Queen has nothing but the power to execute the laws, to adjust grievances and to compel order.
  • (obsolete) To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.
  • * Dryden
  • Easy sleep their weary limbs compelled .
  • * Tennyson
  • I compel all creatures to my will.
  • (obsolete) To gather or unite in a crowd or company.
  • * Dryden
  • in one troop compelled
  • (obsolete) To call forth; to summon.
  • * Spenser
  • She had this knight from far compelled .
    (Chapman)

    Derived terms

    * compellable * compeller * compelling * compellation * compel testimony

    References

    * * * Random House Webster’s Unabridged Electronic Dictionary , 1987-1996. English control verbs English transitive verbs