coercive
adjective
co·er·cive
kō-ˈər-siv 
: serving or intended to coerce
coercive power
coercive measures
coercively
adverb
coerciveness
noun
Examples of coercive in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
From there, Byron embarks on a journey toward womanhood but gets embroiled in deeply coercive and often uncomfortable relationships along the way.
—
Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 3 June 2025
While the precise conditions faced by these workers remain unclear, United Nations labor experts, academics and human rights advocates assert that the programs are coercive in nature.
—David Pierson, New York Times, 29 May 2025
And what emerges from my book is an individual with fault lines within himself, an individual who was a man of competing impulses, an individual who was no stranger to the extraordinary emotional, organizational and coercive power of the party but also had his own views on things.
—Emily Feng, NPR, 28 May 2025
Increasingly present in these actions are various groups with coercive power: current and former employees of state security agencies, Putin’s bodyguards, and such figures as Ramzan Kadyrov, the former warlord and close Putin ally who is head of the Chechen Republic and who has a personal army.
—Andrei Yakovlev, Foreign Affairs, 16 May 2025
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Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 3 June 2025
While the precise conditions faced by these workers remain unclear, United Nations labor experts, academics and human rights advocates assert that the programs are coercive in nature.
—David Pierson, New York Times, 29 May 2025
And what emerges from my book is an individual with fault lines within himself, an individual who was a man of competing impulses, an individual who was no stranger to the extraordinary emotional, organizational and coercive power of the party but also had his own views on things.
—Emily Feng, NPR, 28 May 2025
Increasingly present in these actions are various groups with coercive power: current and former employees of state security agencies, Putin’s bodyguards, and such figures as Ramzan Kadyrov, the former warlord and close Putin ally who is head of the Chechen Republic and who has a personal army.
—Andrei Yakovlev, Foreign Affairs, 16 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for coercive
Cite this Entry
“Coercive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coercive. Accessed 17 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationLegal Definition
coercive
adjective
co·er·cive
kō-ˈər-siv
1
: serving or intended to coerce
2
: resulting from coercion
to protect women from coercive intimacy—Kimberle Crenshaw
Kimberle CrenshawLove words? Need even more definitions?
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