Force (disambiguation) - Definition and Overview

"Force" has several meanings:

In physics, force (physics) is the fundamental cause of motion, as in F = m · a.

In sociology, force compels obedience by means of actual or threatened violence or sanctions.

In military science, a force is a military group, such as in "armed force."

In politics, political force is state-sanctioned violence used to enforce the decrees of a political regime.

In law, force of law or coming into force refer to legal validity. Also in law, "force (law)" involves either unlawful violence, as in a "forced entry".

In philosophy, force is a term going back to Frege, allowing a distinction of statements made with assertoric force (assertions), from other kinds.

In games, including some sports, certain actions or results are said to be forced when the game's rules or conventions require them, as a "forced bet" in poker or a "forcing bid" in contract bridge.

In baseball, a force means that there is a possible force play.

In gardening, forcing a flower bulb means processing it so that it blooms at a different time of the year (or season) than it normally does.

In mathematics, "force" is used in the sense of given conditions' "forcing" a certain result and, therefore, in the related sense of a "brute-force" method, which usually means one that is neither efficient nor intellectually elegant but is "forced" to reach the desired result eventually.

In finance, money may be described as a "force" that can be "leveraged" to increase it.

In cooking, "force" is an obsolete word (derived from "farce" and meaning "to cut [up]") for stuffing, usually used now only of "forced meat" (or "forcemeat"), which is seasoned ground meat.

In the Star Wars universe The Force is a mystical power.

In British slang, force is an old dialect word for a waterfall, describing its power in the same sense as "force of nature." But cf. foss in Icelandic.

In breakfast cereals, Force is a brand of wheat flakes first produced by the Force Food Company in 1901.