different between provoke vs coerce

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French provoquer, from Old French, from Latin pr?voc?re. Doublet of provocate.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /p???v??k/
• (US) IPA^(key): /p???vo?k/
• Rhymes: -??k

Verb

provoke (third-person singular simple present provokes, present participle provoking, simple past and past participle provoked)

1. (transitive) To cause someone to become annoyed or angry.
   • Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath.

2. (transitive) To bring about a reaction.
   • 1881, John Burroughs, Pepacton

     To the poet the meaning is what he pleases to make it, what it provokes in his own soul.
3. (obsolete) To appeal.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (bring about a reaction): bring about, discompose, egg on, engender, evoke, grill, incite, induce, inflame, instigate, invoke, rouse, set off, stir up, whip up; see also Thesaurus:incite

Derived terms

• provocation
• provocative

Related terms

• evoke
• invoke
• provocateur
• revoke

Translations

English

Etymology

From Latin coercere (“to surround, encompass, restrain, control, curb”), from co- (“together”) + arcere (“to inclose, confine, keep off”); see arcade, arcane, ark.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ko???s/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k?????s/
• Rhymes: -??(?)s

Verb

coerce (third-person singular simple present coerces, present participle coercing, simple past and past participle coerced)

1. (transitive) To restrain by force, especially by law or authority; to repress; to curb.
2. (transitive) To use force, threat, fraud, or intimidation in an attempt to compel one to act against their will.

3. (transitive, computing) To force an attribute, normally of a data type, to take on the attribute of another data type.

Synonyms

• compel
• bully
• dragoon

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• coerce in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• coerce in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Latin

Verb

coerc?

1. second-person singular present active imperative of coerce?