compulsion

1. 1.

   an urge to do or say something that might be better left undone or unsaid

   “he felt a compulsion to babble on about the accident”

   Synonymsirresistible impulse

   Broaderirrational impulse
2. 2.

   an irrational motive for performing trivial or repetitive actions, even against your will

   “her compulsion to wash her hands repeatedly”

   Synonymsobsession

   Broaderirrational motive

   Narroweronomatomania
3. 3.

   using force to cause something to occur

   “though pressed into rugby under compulsion I began to enjoy the game”

   “they didn't have to use coercion”

   Synonymscoercion

   Broadercausing

   Narrowereviction

Other forms of compulsion

plural

compulsions·

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 compulsion

What does compulsion mean?

compulsion means "an urge to do or say something that might be better left undone or unsaid". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in compulsion?

compulsion has 3 syllables: com-pul-sion. The stress falls on "pul". In IPA it is /kəmˈpʌlʃən/.

What is another word for compulsion?

Close synonyms include irresistible impulse, obsession, coercion. 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 compulsion a common word?

compulsion 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 compulsion?

1 word rhymes with compulsion. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.