Prohibitive
//pɹəˈhɪbɪtɪv// adj, noun
adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A negative imperative.
Adjective
- 1 Tending to prohibit, preclude, or disallow.
"Some countries are more prohibitive than others when it comes to hot topics like euthanasia and cloning."
- 2 Requiring an unreasonable or impractical effort.
- 3 Costly to the extreme; beyond budget.
"I'd like to visit Europe someday, but the cost is prohibitive right now."
- 4 Being the presumptive or likely winner of a contest. US
"“I think there’s no question about that. I think he’s the prohibitive favorite if he gets in,” Dennis Lennox, a Michigan-based Republican political consultant, told Politico."
Adjective
- 1 tending to discourage (especially of prices) wordnet
Example
More examples"If you are not careful, you will incur prohibitive expenses."
Etymology
From Middle English prohibitif, prohibityve, from Medieval Latin prohibitīvus, from prohibit-, past-participle stem of Latin prohibēre. By surface analysis, prohibit + -ive.
Related phrases
More for "prohibitive"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.