Precaution
//pɹiːˈkɔːʃən// noun, verb
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Previous caution or care; caution previously employed to prevent misfortune or to secure good. countable, uncountable
"his life was saved by precaution"
- 2 a precautionary measure warding off impending danger or damage or injury etc. wordnet
- 3 A measure taken beforehand to ward off evil or secure good or success; a precautionary act. countable, uncountable
"to take precautions against risks of accident"
- 4 the trait of practicing caution in advance wordnet
- 5 judiciousness in avoiding harm or danger wordnet
Verb
- 1 To warn or caution beforehand. transitive
- 2 To take precaution against. rare, transitive
Example
More examples"As a last precaution, I put a flashlight into my pack."
Etymology
From French précaution, Latin praecautio, from praecavere, praecautum (“to guard against beforehand”); prae (“before”) + cavere (“be on one's guard”). See pre-, and caution.
Related phrases
More for "precaution"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.