Preventive
adj, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A thing that prevents, hinders, or acts as an obstacle to. dated
"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 an agent or device intended to prevent conception wordnet
- 3 A thing that slows the development of an illness. dated
"Eaten with sugar yaourt is very palatable and refreshing in warm weather and is said to be a preventive of fever."
- 4 any obstruction that impedes or is burdensome wordnet
- 5 A contraceptive, especially a condom.
Show 1 more definition
- 6 remedy that prevents or slows the course of an illness or disease wordnet
- 1 Preventing, hindering, or acting as an obstacle to.
"...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.
"Physick is either curative or preventive."
- 4 Going before; preceding. obsolete
"Any previous counsel or preventive understanding."
- 1 preventing or contributing to the prevention of disease wordnet
- 2 tending to prevent or hinder wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Out of the four policies that were suggested, I think the most effective one would be the "Improvement of Preventive Care and Health Promotion" policy."
Etymology
Borrowed from New Latin praeventīvus. Equivalent to prevent + -ive.
Related phrases
More for "preventive"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.