compulsories
- 1Plural of compulsory.
The judges scored each diver's compulsories before the freestyle round.
She lost points on the compulsories but recovered during her final routine.
Note
A plural that exists only because the adjective learned to stand as a noun: compulsory, meaning "required; obligatory," came to name the required thing itself. English adjectives never take a plural ending, so compulsories always signals the noun, with y changing to ies as in categories. In a scored event the plural gathers the required elements together, set against whatever competitors choose freely.
compulsories is a form of compulsory
compulsory, noun: An item, task, or requirement that must be done rather than freely chosen. Full entry
- Forms
- compulsorycompulsories plural
- Spelling
- compulsory → compulsories: change y to i, add -es
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /z/.
Use it in a sentence
Write your own sentence with compulsories, and AI will tell you whether it fits and which meaning you used.