compelling

English

Etymology

By surface analysis, compel +‎ -ing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəmˈpɛlɪŋ/

  • Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɛlɪŋ

Verb

compelling

1. present participle and gerund of compel

Adjective

compelling (comparative more compelling, superlative most compelling)

1. very interesting; able to capture and hold one's attention

   Synonym: gripping

   The novel was so compelling that I couldn't put it down.

   • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:

     The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about "creating compelling content", or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing", "share the things you love with the world" and so on.

2. capable of causing someone to believe or agree

   Synonym: convincing

   He made a compelling argument.

   • 2011 October 29, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 3-5 Arsenal”, in BBC Sport:

     Terry's goal looked to have put Chelsea in control on the stroke of half-time but Arsenal's response presented a compelling case for Wenger's insistence that reports of his side's demise have been greatly exaggerated.

3. strong and forceful; that causes one to feel like they must do something

   Synonyms: urgent, pressing

   I would need a very compelling reason to leave my job.

Derived terms

• compellingness
• uncompelling

Translations

able to capture and hold one's attention

• Bulgarian: наложителен (bg) (naložitelen)
• Dutch: dwingend (nl), meeslepend (nl)
• Finnish: pakottava (fi)
• German: zwingend (de), fesselnd (de), unwiderstehlich (de)
• Hungarian: impozáns (hu), hathatós (hu), magával ragadó (hu), ellenállhatatlan (hu), kényszerítő (hu), minden kétséget kizáró (literally “excluding all doubt”)
• Italian: avvincente (it), appassionante (it), coinvolgente (it)
• Russian: безотлага́тельный (ru) m (bezotlagátelʹnyj), неотло́жный (ru) m (neotlóžnyj)
• Spanish: de peso, compeliente, compeledor, compelidor
• Turkish: ilgi uyandırıcı

capable of causing someone to believe or agree — see convincing

strong — see also forceful

• Bulgarian: непреодолим (bg) (nepreodolim), неустоим (bg) (neustoim)
• Finnish: vangitseva (fi), vastustamaton, mukaansatempaava
• German: überwältigend (de), unwiderstehlich (de), fesselnd (de), hinreißend (de)
• Hungarian: erőteljes (hu), elsöprő (hu), hatalmas (hu)
• Italian: entusiasmante (it), convincente (it), persuasivo (it)
• Latin: cōgēns
• Turkish: zorlayıcı (tr)

Noun

compelling (plural compellings)

1. An act of compulsion; an obliging somebody to do something.

Derived terms

• compellingly

Related terms

• compel

References

• “compelling”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “compelling”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• compelling in Britannica Dictionary
• compelling in Macmillan Collocations Dictionary
• compelling in Sentence collocations by Cambridge Dictionary
• compelling in Ozdic collocation dictionary
• compelling in WordReference English Collocations