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

Last spring, Ukraine lowered the conscription age from 27 to 25, but that has failed to replenish ranks or replace battlefield losses. —arkansasonline.com, 13 Feb. 2025

Men are liable to conscription, and tens of thousands of them have been killed. —Howard Lafranchi, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Jan. 2025

At the moment, Ukrainians under age 25 are not subject to conscription. —Dan De Luce, NBC News, 17 Jan. 2025

The great irony, as Randolph Bourne recognized in Wilson’s day, is that the making of modern war undermines democracy at every turn, beginning with the demand for civilians’ passive compliance with mass conscription. —Karen Parker Lears, Harper's Magazine, 2 Dec. 2024

Word History

Etymology

see conscript entry 1

First Known Use

1800, in the meaning defined above