Compulsory

How to spell compulsory

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce compulsory

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does compulsory mean?

1. adjectiveRequired by law or by a rule; not optional.

Compulsory in a sentence

• Attendance at the safety briefing is compulsory for all new staff.

• In most countries education is compulsory up to a certain age.

Where does compulsory come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Compulsory comes from the medieval Latin compulsorius, meaning 'compelling' or 'forcing', which was built on the verb compellere, 'to drive together' or 'to force'. That verb joins com-, an intensifying prefix meaning 'together', with pellere, 'to drive or push', whose past participle stem pulsus gives the spelling its tricky -puls- middle. English adopted the word in the fifteenth century, at first in legal and church contexts for things that could be enforced. The same pellere root drives a whole family of relatives, including 'compel', 'expel', 'repel', and even 'pulse', all of them carrying the idea of pushing or driving. Remembering that buried -puls- (the push that forces you) helps fix the s before the -ory ending, which is the part adults most often misspell.

How the word is built

• com- (together, intensive)
• puls (from Latin pellere, pulsus: to drive or push)
• -ory (adjective suffix)