preventive

See also: préventive

English

Alternative forms

• preventative

Etymology

prevent +‎ -ive

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈvɛntɪv/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

preventive (comparative more preventive, superlative most preventive)

1. Preventing, hindering, or acting as an obstacle to.
   • 1831, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Romance and Reality, volume 2, page 146:

     ...and I sometimes think whether, like the ancient king, it would not be prudent to make an offering to destiny, and throw my set of emeralds into the lake." Emily could not but deprecate the emeralds being destined to any such preventive service;...

2. Carried out to deter military aggression.
3. Slowing the development of an illness; prophylactic.
   • 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:

     Physick is either curative or preventive.

4. (obsolete) Going before; preceding.
   • 1678, Ralph Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe

     Any previous counsel or preventive understanding.

Translations

preventing, hindering, or acting as an obstacle to

• Armenian: կանխարգելիչ (hy) (kanxargeličʻ)
• Bulgarian: предпазен (bg) (predpazen)
• Catalan: preventiu
• Czech: preventivní (cs)
• Finnish: ennaltaehkäisevä (fi), estävä (fi)
• French: préventif (fr) m
• German: vorbeugend (de), präventiv (de), vorsorglich (de)
• Irish: toirmeascach
• Japanese: 抑止力となる
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: forebyggende

  Nynorsk: førebyggjande

• Spanish: preventivo (es)
• Swedish: förebyggande (sv)
• Tagalog: pang-apula

carried out to deter military aggression

• Bulgarian: превантивен (bg) (prevantiven)
• Catalan: preventiu
• Finnish: ennaltaehkäisevä (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: präventiv (de)

slowing the development of an illness

• Armenian: կանխարգելիչ (hy) (kanxargeličʻ)
• Bulgarian: профилактичен (bg) (profilaktičen)
• Catalan: profilàctic
• Finnish: ennaltaehkäisevä (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: vorbeugend (de), präventiv (de)
• Tagalog: pang-apula

Noun

preventive (plural preventives)

1. (dated) A thing that prevents, hinders, or acts as an obstacle to.
   • 1856, Henry William Herbert, The Complete Manual for Young Sportsmen:

     Dogs should be warmly but airily housed; heartily, but not heatingly, fed — old Indian meal, mixed with oatmeal, suppawn, is the best general food, with a small quantity of salt, which is a preventive against worms […]

2. (nonstandard) A thing that slows the development of an illness.
3. A contraceptive, especially a condom.

Usage notes

• Although not a rule, many speakers prefer to use preventive in adjective senses and preventative in noun senses.^[1]

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Italian

Adjective

preventive

1. feminine plural of preventivo