Compulsive

How to spell compulsive

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce compulsive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does compulsive mean?

1. adjectiveDriven by an irresistible urge to act in a particular way, often repeatedly and against one's better judgement.

Compulsive in a sentence

• His compulsive shopping left the household budget in chaos.

• She sought therapy for her compulsive habit of checking the locks.

Where does compulsive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb compellere, meaning 'to drive together' or 'to force', formed from cum 'together' and pellere 'to drive or push'. Its past participle, compulsus, gave the spelling root 'puls' that survives in the modern word and links it to relatives such as 'expel', 'repel', 'propel', and 'pulse'. By the late Latin and medieval period the verb had developed the sense of forcing someone to act against their will, and English took the adjective in through Old French and Latin during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The modern psychological meaning, describing behaviour an individual feels driven to repeat and cannot easily resist, became common in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries with the rise of clinical psychology. The 'puls' spelling, with no double letter, is the key memory hook: think of the inner 'pulse' or push that drives the action.

How the word is built

• com- (intensive, from cum 'together')
• puls (from pellere 'to drive')
• -ive (adjective suffix)