adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Serving to caution or warn; admonitory

   "Most parents were optimistic, but others sounded a cautionary note."

2. 2
   Serving to ward off; preventive
3. 3
   Held as security or hostage obsolete

Adjective

1. 1
   serving to warn wordnet
2. 2
   warding off wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

admonitoryadmonitoryadvisorycautionaldeterrentdidactic

Example

More examples

"This drama is missing something. All it is is a simple cautionary tale with no real depth."

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin cautiōnārius.

Related phrases

cautionary blockcautionary taleward off

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.