force
/foɹs/noun, verb
force is spelled F-O-R-C-E. The wrong spelling people search most is forse: about 90 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 64 of all searches for the word. Force is a noun meaning “Ability to influence; strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigour; might; capacity of exercising…”. The plural of force is forces.
How many letters and syllables are in force?
| Letters | 5: F-O-R-C-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 170 times per million words; the 591st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, forse, about 90 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell force?
Force is spelled F-O-R-C-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 64 of the searches for force 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 force?
Force appears 170 times per million words in written English, the 591st 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 force?
- UK /fɔːs/
- British /foːs/
- US /foɹs/
Force has one syllable (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: En-us-force.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with force?
5 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as force from its last stressed vowel (/oɹs/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of force
- forces plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- forcing participle, present
- forced participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does force mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Ability to influence; strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigour; might; capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect.
the force of an appeal, an argument, or a contract
- 2
The generalized abstraction of this concept.
Torque is the rotational version of force.
- 3
A particular form or type of force.
Most physicists deem there to be four fundamental forces: the weak force, the strong force, gravitation, and the electromagnetic force.
- 4
A metaphysical and ubiquitous power from the fictional Star Wars universe created by George Lucas. See usage note.
- 5
An instance of a physical force.
Two forces acting upon the same point on an object will cancel out only if they have equal magnitude and opposite directions.
- 6
proscribedForce understood as something of which there can be an amount.
Heavier objects are those that are subject to more gravitational force.
- 7
Anything that is able to make a substantial change in a person or thing.
- 8
Something or anything that has the power to produce a physical effect upon something else, such as causing it to move or change shape.
- 9
A waterfall or cascade.
verb
- 1
To make someone or something do something, often regardless of their will.
- 2
To constrain by force; to overcome the limitations or resistance of.
- 3
To drive (something) by force, to propel (generally + prepositional phrase or adverb).
- 4
To cause to occur (despite inertia, resistance etc.); to produce through force.
The comedian's jokes weren't funny, but I forced a laugh now and then.
- 5
To forcibly open (a door, lock etc.).
I forgot my keys in and so we had to force (open) the door.
- 6
To violate (a woman); to rape.
- 7
obsoleteTo exert oneself, to do one's utmost.
- 8
To obtain or win by strength; to take by violence or struggle; specifically, to capture by assault; to storm, as a fortress.
- 9
To stuff; to lard; to farce.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Force in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Kraft , Gewalt , Kräfte , Macht , zwingen , erzwingen |
| Spanish | fuerza, ñeque , forzar, violentar, forcejar , polenta |
| French | force , forces , Force , forcer , pouvoir , truc |
| Portuguese | força , forçar, obrigar, compelir , validade , arrombar |
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 force come from?
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”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).