conscription

noun

con·​scrip·​tion kən-ˈskrip-shən 

: compulsory enrollment of persons especially for military service : draft

During the war the armed forces were heavily dependent on conscription.

Did you know?

With its scrip- root, conscription means basically writing someone's name on a list—a list that, unfortunately, a lot of people usually don't want to be on. Conscription has existed at least since ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom (27th century B.C.), though universal conscription has been rare throughout history. Forms of conscription were used by Prussia, Switzerland, Russia, and other European powers in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the U.S., conscription was first applied during the Civil War, by both the North and the South. In the North there were pockets of resistance, and the draft led to riots in several cities. The U.S. abandoned conscription at the end of the war and didn't revive it until World War I.

Examples of conscription in a Sentence

young people who face conscription into the army

Recent Examples on the Web

In reality, the Russian military was stuck in a halfway state, having acquired some advanced or modernized capabilities but also retaining some Soviet-era characteristics, including conscription and a culture of centralized command that discouraged initiative. —Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Foreign Affairs, 18 Dec. 2024

Its shrinking pool of troops has compelled Russia to bolster its ranks through other means, including financial incentives, penalties for those avoiding conscription as well as recruitment from foreign armies. —Matt Robison, Newsweek, 20 Nov. 2024

In June, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that ultra-Orthodox Jews, historically exempt from conscription, would now be required to serve. —The Week Staff, theweek, 18 Sep. 2024

But an explanatory note to a draft law about fines for failing to register revealed that 6 million Ukrainian nationals of conscription age still had not updated their military registration data within 60 days of the legislation coming into force. —John Mac Ghlionn, Newsweek, 13 Jan. 2025

Word History

Etymology

see conscript entry 1

First Known Use

1800, in the meaning defined above