centripetal force
noun
: the force that is necessary to keep an object moving in a curved path and that is directed inward toward the center of rotation
a string on the end of which a stone is whirled about exerts centripetal force on the stone
compare centrifugal force 
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web American leadership provides the centripetal force to consolidate documentation efforts and incorporate the rapidly coalescing array of private documentation efforts. 
Michael A. Newton, CNN, 15 Mar. 2022 For any object moving in a circle, there needs to be a centripetal force, or a force pulling it towards the circle’s center. Rhett Allain, Wired, 7 Jan. 2022 Instead, activists and political neophytes drawn into the centripetal force of Black Lives Matter in 2020 have been chastised, denigrated, and dismissed as naïve and out of touch. Keeanga-yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker, 19 Nov. 2021 Without any mind-blowing sci-fi level breakthroughs, the only practical way to imitate gravity on a trip to Mars is by spinning the spacecraft and creating a centripetal force. ABC News, 25 July 2021 The virus has been a centripetal force pushing us physically together — my children, my spouse, my work, and me — but in the best case scenario, that force will weaken soon. Washington Post, 17 May 2021 The modern city was a centripetal force spinning beyond control, operating at a scale and pace that could only be inhuman. Richard Cooke, The New Republic, 4 Jan. 2021 The spod flies through the air-centripetal force holds the crud glob in place until splashdown-then the rocker rights itself, raining a sloppy food cloud onto the lake bottom. Kirk Deeter, Field & Stream, 5 Dec. 2020 Think back to the vaguely familiar high school science terms of centripetal force and angular momentum. Jeff Berardelli, CBS News, 8 Oct. 2020 See More
Michael A. Newton, CNN, 15 Mar. 2022 For any object moving in a circle, there needs to be a centripetal force, or a force pulling it towards the circle’s center. Rhett Allain, Wired, 7 Jan. 2022 Instead, activists and political neophytes drawn into the centripetal force of Black Lives Matter in 2020 have been chastised, denigrated, and dismissed as naïve and out of touch. Keeanga-yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker, 19 Nov. 2021 Without any mind-blowing sci-fi level breakthroughs, the only practical way to imitate gravity on a trip to Mars is by spinning the spacecraft and creating a centripetal force. ABC News, 25 July 2021 The virus has been a centripetal force pushing us physically together — my children, my spouse, my work, and me — but in the best case scenario, that force will weaken soon. Washington Post, 17 May 2021 The modern city was a centripetal force spinning beyond control, operating at a scale and pace that could only be inhuman. Richard Cooke, The New Republic, 4 Jan. 2021 The spod flies through the air-centripetal force holds the crud glob in place until splashdown-then the rocker rights itself, raining a sloppy food cloud onto the lake bottom. Kirk Deeter, Field & Stream, 5 Dec. 2020 Think back to the vaguely familiar high school science terms of centripetal force and angular momentum. Jeff Berardelli, CBS News, 8 Oct. 2020 See More Word History
First Known Use
1686, in the meaning defined above