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Inspired vs Compelled - What's the difference?

inspired | compelled |

As verbs the difference between inspired and compelled

is that inspired is past tense of inspire while compelled is past tense of compel.

As an adjective inspired

is having excellence through inspiration.

inspired

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Having excellence through inspiration.
    • The actor's inspired performance of Hamlet's soliloquy left the audience dumbfounded.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=October 23 , author=Tom Fordyce , title=2011 Rugby World Cup final: New Zealand 8-7 France , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=New Zealand were crowned world champions for the first time in 24 years after squeezing past an inspired France team by a single point.}}
  • Filled with inspiration or motivated.
    • The artist was inspired to paint a true masterpiece .
    He was inspired to learn to fly.

    Verb

    (head)
  • (inspire).
  • *{{quote-book, year=2006, author=
    • , title=Internal Combustion , chapter=1 citation , passage=But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.}}

    compelled

    English

    Verb

    (head)
  • (compel)

    • 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