SmithsonianMarilyn B. YoungPaul GrayWilliam Shakespeare
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English speakers borrowed par force from Anglo-French in the 14th century. Par meant "by" (from Latin per) and the Anglo-French word force had the same meaning as its English equivalent, which was already in use by then. At first, perforce meant quite literally "by physical coercion." That meaning is no longer used today, but it was still prevalent in William Shakespeare's lifetime (1564-1616). "He rush'd into my house and took perforce my ring away," wrote the Bard in The Comedy of Errors. The "by force of circumstances" sense of perforce had also come into use by Shakespeare's day. In Henry IV, Part 2, we find "... your health; the which, if you give o'er to stormy passion, must perforce decay."
Examples of perforce in a Sentence
Naomi Fry, The New Yorker, 15 Oct. 2019
Someone who loses his career is perforce no longer in an alliance with the employer.
—Lidija Haas, The New Republic, 1 July 2019
Take the Best Revival of a Musical category, which this year will perforce be a showdown between Cole Porter’s Kiss Me Kate and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!
—Adam Green, Vogue, 30 Apr. 2019
The search zone is the creation of the ATSB, and is perforce somewhat arbitrary.
—Bucky McMahon, Esquire, 14 Sep. 2015
What might be called the Falstaff question—is this man a harmless buffoon, or a dangerous threat to the world order?—has, perforce, become a national preoccupation.
—Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 2 May 2016
This man is perforce a tyrant, and the people cease to owe him allegiance.
—Charles P. Pierce, Esquire, 31 July 2014
Cite this Entry
“Perforce.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perforce. Accessed 16 Mar. 2025.
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perforce
adverb
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