COMPELLING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does compelling mean? 

• COMPELLING (adjective)
  The adjective COMPELLING has 2 senses:

1. driving or forcing

2. tending to persuade by forcefulness of argument

  Familiarity information: COMPELLING used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COMPELLING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Driving or forcing

Context example:

compelling ambition

Similar:

powerful (having great power or force or potency or effect)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Tending to persuade by forcefulness of argument

Context example:

new and compelling evidence

Similar:

persuasive (intended or having the power to induce action or belief)

 Context examples 

Conversation threw them out of their stride, as it did this time, compelling Martin to miss a stroke of his iron and to make two extra motions before he caught his stride again.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The heritage was too compelling for a wolf that was only a cub.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The prospect of a vaccine to stop gaining weight by eating fat is getting closer to reality after scientists found compelling evidence linking obesity to an infectious virus.

(Scientists Find Virus Linked to Weight Gain, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The signs so far are indirect, mainly its gravitational footprints, but that adds up to a compelling case nonetheless.

(The Super-Earth that Came Home for Dinner, NASA)

These unfrozen materials appear to be relics of past surface ecosystems and the findings provide compelling evidence that they now provide deep subsurface habitats for microbial life despite extreme environmental conditions.

(Discovered deep under Antarctic surface: Extensive, salty aquifer and potentially vast microbial habitat, NSF)

But the joy of shooting to hit is a most compelling thing, when once you’ve learned how to shoot.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A new study offers a compelling answer — a combination of temperature variation in sea water and iron from dust off Southern Hemisphere continents.

(Why atmospheric carbon dioxide was lower during ice ages, National Science Foundation)

A sudden compelling urge to defecate.

(Defecation Urgency, NCI Thesaurus)

Adding to this compelling narrative is another galaxy, appearing to the lower left of D100 in the image, that foreshadows D100's fate.

(Hubble Sees Plunging Galaxy Losing Its Gas, NASA)

One key science finding in 2012 provided compelling support for the hypothesis that Mercury harbors abundant frozen water and other volatile materials in its permanently shadowed polar craters.

(NASA Spacecraft Achieves Unprecedented Success Studying Mercury, NASA)