compulsory
/kəmˈpʌlsəɹi/adjective, noun
compulsory is spelled C-O-M-P-U-L-S-O-R-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is compulsery: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 152 of all searches for the word. Compulsory is an adjective meaning “Required; obligatory; mandatory”.
How many letters and syllables are in compulsory?
| Letters | 10: C-O-M-P-U-L-S-O-R-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 5.0 times per million words; the 11,198th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, compulsery, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell compulsory?
Compulsory is spelled C-O-M-P-U-L-S-O-R-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 152 of the searches for compulsory in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is compulsory?
Compulsory appears 5.0 times per million words in written English, the 11,198th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce compulsory?
- /kəmˈpʌlsəɹi/
Compulsory has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-compulsory.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of compulsory
- more compulsory comparative
- most compulsory superlative
- compulsary
- compulsories plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does compulsory mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Required; obligatory; mandatory.
The ten-dollar fee was compulsory.
- 2
Having the power of compulsion; constraining.
Such compulsory measures are limited.
noun
- 1
Something that is compulsory or required.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Compulsory in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | obligatoire |
| German | obligatorisch, pflichtmäßig, gesetzlich, verpflichtend , zwangsweise |
| Portuguese | obrigatório , compulsório |
| Spanish | compulsor, comisorio, compulsorio |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does compulsory come from?
Borrowed from Late Latin compulsorius, from Latin compulsus. Displaced native Old English ġenīedelīċ.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).