Word.ws English Dictionary

compellence

compellence noun: the act of compelling.

Noun

compellence (uncountable)

  1. The act of compelling.
    • Accordingly, if Beijing desires continued prospects for peaceful reunification with Taipei, then it must cease its strategy of compellence and give Taiwan more international breathing space. Instead of inviting Taiwan's ire with its[…]1999, 民主進步黨, 廿一世紀的中國國際硏討會
    • Although deterrence and compellence both involve coercion by manipulating the adversary's calculation of costs and benefits, they differ in several crucial respects. Deterrence is a threat intended to keep an adversary from starting something. Compellence is a threat intended to make him do...2003, Forrest E. Morgan, Compellence and the Strategic Culture of Imperial Japan: Implications for Coercive Diplomacy in the Twenty-first Century, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 3

Examples of compellence in a sentence

  • Although deterrence and compellence both involve coercion by manipulating the adversary's calculation of costs and benefits, they differ in several crucial respects.2003, Forrest E. Morgan, Compellence and the Strategic Culture of Imperial Japan: Implications for Coercive Diplomacy in the Twenty-first...
  • Humanitarian operations will more often partake of compellence than deterrence.2009, Robert J. Art, Kenneth Neal Waltz, The Use of Force: Military Power and International Politics, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 431:

Forms of compellence

alternative formcompellance

Origin of compellence

From compel + -ence.

Questions about compellence

What does compellence mean?
Compellence means the act of compelling.
How do you use compellence in a sentence?
Although deterrence and compellence both involve coercion by manipulating the adversary's calculation of costs and benefits, they differ in several crucial respects.
What part of speech is compellence?
Compellence is a noun.

Words near compellence in the dictionary

  1. compellatory
  2. compelled
  3. compelled speech
  4. compelled testimony
  5. compelledly
  6. compellence
  7. compellent
  8. compeller
  9. compellers
  10. compellest
  11. compelleth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: compellence (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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