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Forcible vs Terrible - What's the difference?

forcible | terrible |

As adjectives the difference between forcible and terrible

is that forcible is able to be forced while terrible is dreadful; causing alarm and fear.

forcible

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Able to be forced.
  • Having force.
  • * Bible, Job vi. 2
  • How forcible are right words!
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Sweet smells are most forcible in dry substances, when broken.
  • * Hooker
  • That punishment which hath been sometimes forcible to bridle sin.
  • Done by force. Oxford American Dictionaries (MacBook widget)
  • * 2008 , U.S. Department of Justice – Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States
  • Forcible rape, as defined in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, is the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will. Attempts or assaults to commit rape by force or threat of force are also included; however, statutory rape (without force) and other sex offenses are excluded.
  • Having a powerful effect; telling
  • References

    *

    terrible

    English

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • Dreadful; causing alarm and fear.
  • Formidable, powerful.
  • * 1883: (Robert Louis Stevenson), (Treasure Island)
  • and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to admire him, calling him a "true sea-dog," and "real old salt," and such-like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England terrible at sea.
  • Intense; extreme in degree or extent.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=18 citation , passage=‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?}}
  • Unpleasant; disagreeable.
  • * , chapter=12
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=To Edward […] he was terrible , nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling.}}
  • Very bad; lousy.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 26, author=Tasha Robinson, work=The Onion AV Club
  • , title= Film: Reviews: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits , passage=The openly ridiculous plot has The Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) scheming to win the Pirate Of The Year competition, even though he’s a terrible pirate, far outclassed by rivals voiced by Jeremy Piven and Salma Hayek.}}

    Synonyms

    * See also