compel

Other forms of compel

past tense or participle

compelled

present participle

compelling

third person

compels·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about compel

What does compel mean?

compel means "force somebody to do something". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in compel?

compel has 2 syllables: com-pel. The stress falls on "pel". In IPA it is /kəmˈpɛl/.

What is another word for compel?

Close synonyms include oblige, obligate. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is compel a common word?

compel is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with compel?

5 words rhyme with compel. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.