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# force

«force» in Mova's school dictionary: **In science: a push or a pull that can make something…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a force, forces; force — uncountable: strength); verb (force, forces, forced, forcing)

### meaning for a pupil

1) In science: a push or a pull that can make something move, stop, speed up, slow down or change shape. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/force/#m1)

2) Strength or power: «He pushed with force». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/force/#m2)

3) Verb: to make someone do something they don't want to: «Nobody can force you». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/force/#m3)

4) Verb: to use strength to open or move something: force a door open. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/force/#m4)

5) A group of people trained to work together: the police force, the air force. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/force/#m5)

### sense in the lessons

In science: forces include gravity (pulls down), friction (slows things down), air resistance, water resistance, upthrust (pushes up in water), magnetism; forces are measured in newtons (N) with a forcemeter; balanced forces keep things still; unbalanced forces change motion. In safety: no one can force you to do something unsafe or to keep a secret that hurts. Phrases: push and pull forces, force of gravity, by force, in force (rules active), the police force, join forces, force open.

### examples

- A force is a push or a pull. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/force/#x1)
- Gravity is a force that pulls things down. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/force/#x2)
- Friction is a force that slows things down. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/force/#x3)
- Forces are measured in newtons. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/force/#x4)
- Nobody can force you to keep a bad secret. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/force/#x5)
- He forced the door open. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/force/#x6)
- The police force keeps people safe. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/force/#x7)
- The two teams joined forces to win. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/force/#x8)
- Who dares to use force in my palace? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/force/#x9)

### note

Countable when it means a kind of force (forces), uncountable when it means strength. Regular verb: forced (drop the e). In science a force has a size and a direction (arrows on a diagram). Myth: a moving object doesn't need a force to keep moving — it slows because of friction.

### In the corpora

- [Forced perspective is a camera trick: something close to the camera looks huge and something far away looks tiny.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/21-filters-edits-and-fake-photos/14/)
- [Third: people are now the strongest force on the planet.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/300-the-big-biology-quiz-part-3-dinosaurs-evolution-conservation-and-food/6/)
- [So the Badger decides on force: the three of them will move into Toad Hall and stay until Toad is cured.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/46-willows-ch6-part2-not-sorry-and-locked-up/11/)
- [Toad struts along the high road, miles from home, singing his own praises: brain has beaten brute force!](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/48-willows-ch6-part4-twenty-years-in-the-dungeon/0/)
- [Toad: «Smart piece of work that! … Brain against brute force—and brain came out on the top».](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/48-willows-ch6-part4-twenty-years-in-the-dungeon/16/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «force» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/force/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.