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Compulsory vs Law - What's the difference?

compulsory | law |

As nouns the difference between compulsory and law

is that compulsory is something that is compulsory or required while law is the body of rules and standards issued by a government, or to be applied by courts and similar authorities.

As an adjective compulsory

is required; obligatory; mandatory.

As an interjection law is

an exclamation of mild surprise; lawks.

As a proper noun Law is

{{surname|patronymic|from=given names}.

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. }}

    law

    English

    (wikipedia law)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) lawe, and gesetnes. More at (l).

    Noun

  • (lb) The body of rules and standards issued by a government, or to be applied by courts and similar authorities.
  • :
  • *, chapter=22
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part.
  • A particular such rule.
  • :
  • *
  • *:As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish,I do not suppose that it matters much in reality whether laws are made by dukes or cornerboys, but I like, as far as possible, to associate with gentlemen in private life.
  • (lb) A written or understood rule that concerns behaviours and their consequences. Laws are usually associated with mores.
  • :
  • A well-established, observed physical characteristic or behavior of nature. The word is used to simply identify "what happens," without implying any explanatory mechanism or causation. Compare to theory.
  • :
  • (lb) A statement that is true under specified conditions.
  • A category of English "common law" petitions that request monetary relief, as opposed to relief in forms other than a monetary judgment; compare to "equity".
  • (lb) One of the official rules of cricket as codified by the MCC.
  • The police.
  • :
  • (lb) One of the two metaphysical forces of the world in some fantasy settings, as opposed to chaos.
  • An oath, as in the presence of a court. See wager of law.
    • Hyponyms
    * sharia law
    Derived terms
    * above the law * against the law * a law unto oneself * * Avogadro’s law * Beer-Lambert law * Boyle’s law * bylaw * canon law * Charles’ law * civil law * common law * contract law * corn laws * Coulomb’s law * criminal law * de Morgan’s laws * employment law * family law * Faraday’s laws * federal law * feudal law * Fourier’s law * Gauss’s law * Graham’s law * Gresham’s law * Henry’s law * Hooke’s law * Hubble’s law * international law * into law * Kepler’s laws of planetary motion * Kerchoff’s laws * law and order * lawful * lawgiver * lawlike * law lord * lawmaker, law-maker * law of cosines * law of large numbers * law of sines * law of small numbers * law of tangents * law of the land * law of the tongue * lay down the law * long arm of the law * lynch law * martial law * Moore’s law * Murphy's law * natural law * Newton’s law of cooling * Newton’s law of gravitation * Newton’s laws of motion * Ohm’s law * physical law * power law * Poiseuille’s law * possession is nine points of the law * property law * Roman law * statuate (statute)+law=statuate law (US) * state law * statute law (Commonwealth English) * Stefan-Boltzmann law * Stokes’ law * sus law * take the law into one’s own hands * the law is an ass * three laws of robotics * unwritten law * Zipf’s law

    See also

    * * *

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) . Also spelled low.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) a tumulus of stones
  • a hill
  • * 1892 , Robert Louis Stevenson, Across the Plains
    • You might climb the Law [...] and behold the face of many counties.

    Etymology 3

    Compare (la).

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • (dated) An exclamation of mild surprise; lawks.

    • References

    Etymology] in [[:w:da:ODS, ODS]

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