The law's harsh sentence is a deterrent against drinking and driving.
Source: tatoeba (2332747)
Deterrent
//dɪˈtɛɹənt//
Synonyms for "deterrent" (90 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (18)
Strong matches (27)
Related words (45)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
More general
2 entriesSynonyms
1 entriesRelated terms
1 entriesderived
8 entriesrelated to
2 entriessimilar
3 entriesTranslations
36 translations across 18 languages.
Bulgarian
1 entries- предпазен adj (serving to deter)
Chinese
2 entries- 威慑的 adj (serving to deter)
- 威慑物 noun (something that deters)
Dutch
4 entries- afschrikkend adj (serving to deter)
- afschrikwekkend adj (serving to deter)
- ontradend adj (serving to deter)
- afschrikmiddel noun (something that deters)
Finnish
3 entries- pidättelevä adj (serving to deter)
- pelote noun (something that deters)
- pidäke noun (something that deters)
French
2 entries- dissuasif adj (serving to deter)
- moyen de dissuasion noun (something that deters)
Galician
2 entries- disuasivo adj (serving to deter)
- disuasorio adj (serving to deter)
German
2 entries- abschreckend adj (serving to deter)
- Abschreckung noun (something that deters)
Greek
1 entries- αποτρεπτικός adj (serving to deter)
Hungarian
1 entries- elrettentő noun (something that deters)
Italian
1 entries- dissuasivo adj (serving to deter)
Japanese
1 entries- 抑止力 noun (something that deters)
Māori
2 entries- whakakōroiroi adj (serving to deter)
- whakakōroiroi noun (something that deters)
Polish
2 entries- odstraszający adj (serving to deter)
- odstraszacz noun (something that deters)
Portuguese
1 entries- dissuasório adj (serving to deter)
Russian
1 entries- сре́дство устраше́ния noun (something that deters)
Scottish Gaelic
1 entries- casg noun (something that deters)
Spanish
4 entries- deterrente adj (serving to deter)
- disuasivo adj (serving to deter)
- disuasor adj (serving to deter)
- disuasorio adj (serving to deter)
Swedish
2 entries- avskräckningsmedel noun (something that deters)
- avskräckningsvapen noun (something that deters)
Sample sentences
13 total sentences available.
It is just because fear of punishment has no deterrent effect that crime continues in spite of all laws and courts, prisons and executions.
Source: tatoeba (5298700)
Judge Salvador was of the school that thought stiff sentences were a deterrent.
Source: tatoeba (9518680)
I think this would act as a deterrent.
Source: tatoeba (9764582)
Showing 4 of 13 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.