How to Use compulsory in a Sentence

compulsory

adjective
  • The effort would build on a push by two nearby schools to make teaching of the Land Wars compulsory.
    — Jamie Tarabay, New York Times, 2 Dec. 2019
  • When two viruses infect the same cell at the same time such swaps are more or less compulsory.
    — The Economist, 20 Aug. 2020
  • Once that is reached, EO-20 will no longer be compulsory.
    — Emily Goodykoontz, Anchorage Daily News, 13 Apr. 2021
  • In addition to the compulsory veil, women have to wear a closed overcoat that falls over the knees.
    — Thomas Erdbrink, New York Times, 2 June 2018
  • So the last two compulsory picks fall to SoCal, who gets both for the minimum $10k.
    — Todd Boss, Forbes, 3 Mar. 2025
  • The compulsory recall is one of the largest ever in New Zealand.
    — Washington Post, 4 Apr. 2018
  • In the old days, many people who didn’t want to wear the hijab kind of accepted the compulsory hijab, went along with it.
    — Karl Vick, Time, 29 Sep. 2022
  • While school is compulsory for French children from the age of six, since 1989 parents have had the legal right to a place in a pre-school center from the age of three.
    — Elizabeth Schumacher, USA TODAY, 27 Mar. 2018
  • The US Supreme Court ruled in 1905 that states have the right to enforce compulsory vaccination laws.
    — Carolyn Thompson, BostonGlobe.com, 1 Sep. 2019
  • But congress blocked Mr Peña’s plan to make this compulsory.
    — The Economist, 5 May 2018
  • The act itself—putting a record on to fill the room—felt significantly less compulsory to me.
    — Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 26 Nov. 2021
  • The jerk wings are saucy, spicy, slippery and compulsory eating.
    — Washington Post, 28 June 2021
  • Center-lock wheels are compulsory, for one, and the front and rear anti-roll bars are adjustable through three settings each.
    — Dan Edmunds, Car and Driver, 22 Mar. 2022
  • In North Rhine-Westphalia, masks will be compulsory in the classroom, too—but only until the end of August.
    — David Meyer, Fortune, 10 Aug. 2020
  • The embarrassing defeat was the catalyst for the AIFF to make the wearing of boots compulsory in 1953.
    — SI.com, 25 Feb. 2018
  • Most reservists were already in Israel at the time of the call-up – the largest such compulsory mobilization since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
    — Helen Coster and Alexander Cornwell, The Christian Science Monitor, 13 Oct. 2023
  • Federal sentencing guidelines, which are not compulsory, called for a prison term in the range of 37 to 46 months.
    — Paul Duggan, Washington Post, 21 Oct. 2022
  • In red zones, the authorities are able to make masks compulsory outdoors and close bar.
    — Matias Grez, CNN, 28 Aug. 2020
  • August had come round once more with its compulsory lusciousness, its tang of cherries on the tongue.
    — Deborah Landau, The New Yorker, 20 June 2022
  • He also was charged a share of the group's compulsory gratuity.
    — Michael K. McIntyre, cleveland.com, 18 Feb. 2018
  • He was arrested in 2018 for protesting against the compulsory wearing of the hijab.
    — Reuters, CNN, 12 Feb. 2023
  • None of this convinced the City Council to abandon the compulsory homeless voucher scheme.
    — Michael Goldstein, Forbes, 10 Aug. 2022
  • Schools made liberal use of corporal punishment—a leather strap to the palms in O’Toole’s school, a bamboo cane to the palms in mine—and the teaching of Irish was compulsory.
    — Cullen Murphy, The Atlantic, 14 Mar. 2022
  • In Arizona, school is compulsory, which means state law requires every child between the ages of 6 and 16 to attend school.
    — Lily Altavena, USA TODAY, 30 Oct. 2020
  • In some of these countries, voting is compulsory, and in most of them, Election Day is a holiday.
    — Cara Korte, CBS News, 26 Oct. 2020
  • Aster does just fine with the compulsory horror elements: the eerie apparitions, paranormal threats, and things that go bump in the night (and day).
    — Noel Murray, The Verge, 8 June 2018
  • South Korea has compulsory conscription, and almost all healthy men are required to serve time in the army.
    — Julia Hollingsworth, CNN, 21 Nov. 2019
  • There was, as well, beauty to behold, which is also compulsory in Mozart.
    — Los Angeles Times, 7 Aug. 2019
  • A couple of decades ago, sporting them was compulsory, a rule enforced with beatings by the Taliban.
    — The Economist, 5 Nov. 2020
  • The district representatives grow increasingly dubious about everyone’s strange attitudes, eventually shaking Ava as their compulsory chaperone while the staff runs out of places to stash the larger items.
    — Ile-Ife Okantah, Vulture, 19 Mar. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'compulsory.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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