compelling

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
compelling
    adj 1: driving or forcing; "compelling ambition"
    2: tending to persuade by forcefulness of argument; "new and
       compelling evidence"
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Compel \Com*pel"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Compelled}; p. pr. & vb.
   n. {Compelling}.] [L. compellere, compulsum, to drive
   together, to compel, urge; com- + pellere to drive: cf. OF.
   compellir. See {Pulse}.]
   1. To drive or urge with force, or irresistibly; to force; to
      constrain; to oblige; to necessitate, either by physical
      or moral force.
      [1913 Webster]

            Wolsey . . . compelled the people to pay up the
            whole subsidy at once.                --Hallam.
      [1913 Webster]

            And they compel one Simon . . . to bear his cross.
                                                  --Mark xv. 21.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To take by force or violence; to seize; to exact; to
      extort. [R.]
      [1913 Webster]

            Commissions, which compel from each
            The sixth part of his substance.      --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.
      [1913 Webster]

            Easy sleep their weary limbs compelled. --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

            I compel all creatures to my will.    --Tennyson.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. To gather or unite in a crowd or company. [A Latinism] "In
      one troop compelled." --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. To call forth; to summon. [Obs.] --Chapman.
      [1913 Webster]

            She had this knight from far compelled. --Spenser.

   Syn: To force; constrain; oblige; necessitate; coerce. See
        {Coerce}.
        [1913 Webster]
    
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
52 Moby Thesaurus words for "compelling":
      actuating, acute, animating, causal, causative, clamorous,
      coactive, compulsive, compulsory, constraining, critical, crucial,
      crying, decretal, decretive, decretory, dictating, directive,
      driving, exigent, gripping, high-pressure, high-priority, holding,
      impelling, imperative, imperious, impulsive, inducive, insistent,
      instant, instructive, irresistible, jussive, mandating, motivating,
      motivational, motive, moving, obligating, obsessing, obsessional,
      obsessive, peremptory, pivotal, possessing, preceptive,
      preoccupying, prescriptive, pressing, restraining, urgent

    

[email protected]