force
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "force", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "force" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "force" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
force is aEnglishnoun. It means: Ability to influence; strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigour; might; capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect. Pronounced /fɔːs/. It ranks #587 in English word frequency. Often confused with free and form.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | force |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /fɔːs/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #587 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for force is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fɔːs/. Corpus data places it at rank #587 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 20 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for force, with forms such as "fforce", "focre", and "forcce". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "free", "form", "ford", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English force, fors, forse, from Old French force, from Late Latin fortia, a noun derived from the neuter plural of Latin fortis (“strong”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- (“to rise, high, hill”). Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is force, spelled F-O-R-C-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Ability to influence; strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigour; might; capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect.
- 2A physical quantity that denotes ability to push, pull, twist or accelerate a body and which has a direction and is measured in a unit dimensioned in mass × distance/time² (ML/T²): SI: newton (N); CGS: dyne (dyn).
- 3A physical quantity that denotes ability to push, pull, twist or accelerate a body and which has a direction and is measured in a unit dimensioned in mass × distance/time² (ML/T²): SI: newton (N); CGS: dyne (dyn).
- 4A physical quantity that denotes ability to push, pull, twist or accelerate a body and which has a direction and is measured in a unit dimensioned in mass × distance/time² (ML/T²): SI: newton (N); CGS: dyne (dyn).
- 5A physical quantity that denotes ability to push, pull, twist or accelerate a body and which has a direction and is measured in a unit dimensioned in mass × distance/time² (ML/T²): SI: newton (N); CGS: dyne (dyn).
- 6A physical quantity that denotes ability to push, pull, twist or accelerate a body and which has a direction and is measured in a unit dimensioned in mass × distance/time² (ML/T²): SI: newton (N); CGS: dyne (dyn).
- 7Anything that is able to make a substantial change in a person or thing.
- 8Something or anything that has the power to produce a physical effect upon something else, such as causing it to move or change shape.
- 9Something that exerts influence.
- 10Something that exerts influence.
- 11Power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power; violence; coercion.
- 12Power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power; violence; coercion.
- 13A group organized for the goal of attacking, controlling, or constraining, especially one with a set command structure (in particular, a military or police group).
- 14A group organized for the goal of attacking, controlling, or constraining, especially one with a set command structure (in particular, a military or police group).
- 15A group organized for the goal of attacking, controlling, or constraining, especially one with a set command structure (in particular, a military or police group).
- 16A group organized for the goal of attacking, controlling, or constraining, especially one with a set command structure (in particular, a military or police group).
- 17The state of having legal weight, of being legally valid,.
- 18A magic trick in which the outcome is known to the magician beforehand, especially one involving the apparent free choice of a card by another person.
- 19Ability of an utterance or its element (word, form, prosody, ...) to effect a given meaning.
- 20The annualized instantaneous rate of change at a particular timepoint.
Etymology
From Middle English force, fors, forse, from Old French force, from Late Latin fortia, a noun derived from the neuter plural of Latin fortis (“strong”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- (“to rise, high, hill”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: fforce,focre,forcce,forec,forrce,froce,ofrce
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for force
Misspelling Variants of "force"
Frequency rank: #587 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter F in our English index: