Forced

Forced is the past tense and past participle of the verb force. It is also used as an adjective to describe something done under coercion or compulsory demand. The term derives from Old French forcer, from Latin fortis meaning strong.

In grammar, forced forms indicate actions performed under constraint. Examples: “He was forced to sign the document” or “The door was forced open.” As an adjective, “forced” can describe actions or expressions that are not natural or voluntary, as in “a forced smile.”

In social and legal contexts, forced practices refer to coercive actions that violate rights. Forced labor is work extracted from a person under threat or coercion; forced marriage involves a union conducted without freely given consent; forced migration describes people compelled to leave their homes by conflict, violence, or disaster. International law and human rights frameworks condemn such practices; organizations such as the International Labour Organization and various treaties address protections and remedies against coercion and exploitation.

Other specialized uses exist in arts and sciences. In photography and film, “forced perspective” is a technique to create optical illusion by manipulating camera distance and lens to depict size relationships; in linguistics and psychology, terms like “forced choice” describe research methods that compel a specific response. The meaning of forced thus ranges from grammatical forms to broad concepts of coercion and constraint.