Word of the Day Archive
Sunday January 13, 2002
perforce \pur-FORS\
, adverb:
By necessity; by force of circumstance.
It will be an astonishing sight, should it come to pass, and even those of us who have followed every twist and turn of this process will perforce rub our eyes.
-- "Unionists sit tight as the poker game nears its climax", Irish Times, July 10, 1999
. . .the error of supposing that, because everything indeed is not right with the world, everything must accordingly be wrong with the world; the error of supposing that, because we are plainly not a race of angels, we must perforce be a race of beasts.
-- James Gardner, "Infinite Jest (book reviews)", National Review, June 17, 1996
Perforce comes from French par force, "by force."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for perforce
