noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Prevention of, or protective treatment for, disease. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   the prevention of disease wordnet
3. 3
   A move or strategy that frustrates an opponent's plan or tactic. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms

active treatmentadjuvant treatmentantigen treatmentcausal treatmentconservative treatmentcross-firing

Example

More examples

"Can post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) stop me getting HIV?"

Etymology

From Latin, from Ancient Greek πρό (pró, “before”) + φύλαξις (phúlaxis, “a watching, guarding”).

Related phrases

post-exposure prophylaxispre-exposure prophylaxis

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