enforcement

English

Etymology

From Old French enforcement, see enforce +‎ -ment.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfɔːsm(ə)nt/, /ɛn-/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfoɹsm(ə)nt/, /ɛn-/
• Hyphenation: en‧force‧ment

Noun

enforcement (usually uncountable, plural enforcements)

1. The act of enforcing; compulsion.
   • 1555, Peter Martyr of Angleria [i.e., Peter Martyr d’Anghiera], “The Seconde Booke of the Fyrste Decade to Ascanius Phorcia [i.e., Ascanio Sforza], Vicounte Cardinall. &c.”, in Rycharde Eden [i.e., Richard Eden], transl., The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India, […], London: […] [Rycharde Jug for] Guilhelmi Powell, →OCLC, 1st decade, folio 8, recto:

     [M]en lyued ſimplye and innocentlye without inforcement of lawes, without quarellinge Judges and libelles, contente onely to ſatiſfie nature, without further vexation for knowledge of thinges to come.

   • 2025 July 13, Aaron Blake, “Trump’s mass deportation is backfiring”, in CNN‎^[1], archived from the original on 17 July 2025:

     And as congressional Republicans were passing a very unpopular Trump agenda bill last month, Vice President JD Vance argued that its historic expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and new immigration enforcement provisions were so important that “everything else” was “immaterial.”

2. A giving force to; a putting in execution.
3. That which enforces, constraints, gives force, authority, or effect to; constraint; force applied.

Alternative forms

• inforcement (archaic)

Derived terms

• civil enforcement officer
• code enforcement
• debt enforcement
• enforcement agent
• enforcement authority
• law enforcement
• nonenforcement
• overenforcement
• underenforcement

Translations

act of enforcing; compulsion

• Bulgarian: принуда (bg) f (prinuda)
• Dutch: handhaving (nl) f
• Esperanto: eldevigo
• Finnish: täytäntöönpano (fi)
• German: Vollstreckung (de) f, Durchsetzung (de) f
• Gothic: 𐌲𐌰𐌰𐌲𐌲𐍅𐌴𐌹 f (gaaggwei)
• Hungarian: kényszerítés (hu), kikényszerítés (hu), kierőszakolás (hu)
• Indonesian: penegakan (id)
• Italian: applicazione (it), imposizione (it), attuazione (it), compimento (it), esecuzione (it), rispetto (it)
• Macedonian: извршување n (izvršuvanje)
• Malay: penguatkuasaan
• Portuguese: aplicação (pt) f, cumprimento (pt) m, coerção (pt) f, imposição (pt) f, observação (pt) f, execução (pt) f
• Russian: принужде́ние (ru) n (prinuždénije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: про̀ведба f

  Latin: pròvedba (sh) f

• Spanish: compulsión f, coerción (es) f, enforzamiento m

giving force to; a putting in execution

• Bulgarian: изпълнение (bg) n (izpǎlnenie)
• Finnish: täytäntöönpano (fi), toimeenpano (fi)
• German: Vollstreckung (de) f, Durchsetzung (de) f
• Hungarian: végrehajtás (hu), érvényre juttatás, érvényesítés (hu), betartatás (hu)
• Macedonian: извршување n (izvršuvanje)
• Plautdietsch: Bedwinjunk f
• Russian: осуществле́ние (ru) n (osuščestvlénije), исполне́ние (ru) (ispolnénije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: про̀ведба f, спро̀вођење n

  Latin: pròvedba (sh) f, spròvođēnje (sh) n

• Spanish: ejecución (es) f, aplicación (es) f
• Turkish:

  Ottoman Turkish: تطبیق (tatbik)

that which enforces, constraints, gives force, authority, or effect to; constraint; force applied

• Finnish: täytäntöönpano (fi), toimeenpano (fi)
• Russian: правопримене́ние (ru) n (pravoprimenénije)

Further reading

• enforcement on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Enforcement”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “enforcement”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “enforcement”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “enforcement”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “enforcement”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.