perforce
Americanadverb
adverb
Etymology
Origin of perforce
1300–50; per + force; replacing Middle English par force < Middle French
Explanation
The adverb perforce means "necessarily" or "inevitably." As wonderful and warm as summer is, it must perforce come to an end. Read enough poetry and you'll perforce come across the word perforce sooner or later. It's mainly used in literary or formal contexts, so you can choose to use it if you want to sound fancy: "Our disagreement over what to have for dinner will perforce end in our ordering a pizza." Perforce comes from the Old French par force, "by force."
Vocabulary lists containing perforce
Othello
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King Lear
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"The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," Vocabulary from Act 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Even people’s pets were bought up, or perforce left behind.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 31, 2025
Methane is a carbon-based molecule, so many of the ingredients for life are perforce there.
From Scientific American • Jul. 6, 2023
Doing so, perforce, would also crush the rebels’ claim that the national government was powerless to halt slavery’s growth and commence its extinction.
From New York Times • Oct. 6, 2020
If GE gets a good deal, the buyers — perforce — get a bad one.
From Washington Post • Jun. 16, 2017
Only their middle names, which perforce became their given names, were their own.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
