preventative

C2+ Topic:Health & Medicine

US /prɪˈvɛntətɪv/ UK /prɪˈvɛntətɪv/ See IPA manual

adj noun

Meanings

1

adj
serving to prevent something, especially disease

Regular exercise is a good preventative measure.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · serving to prevent... preventive prophylacticprecautionaryprotective deterrent

Opposites

causative

Word family

Derived forms preventatively

Related forms prevent prevention preventer

Etymology

From prevent (from Latin praevenire 'to come before, hinder', from prae- 'before' + venire 'to come') + the suffix -ative; a variant of preventive.

praevenire Latin venire Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Health & Medicine Word Formation & Derivatives

# preventative

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj, noun
**IPA (US):** prɪˈvɛntətɪv
**IPA (UK):** prɪˈvɛntətɪv

## Meanings
1. serving to prevent something, especially disease

## Examples
- Regular exercise is a good preventative measure.

## Synonyms
- preventive
- prophylactic
- precautionary
- protective
- deterrent

## Antonyms
- causative

## Derived Forms
- preventatively

## Related Forms
- prevent
- prevention
- preventer

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: praevenire
- Root: venire

## Etymology
From prevent (from Latin praevenire 'to come before, hinder', from prae- 'before' + venire 'to come') + the suffix -ative; a variant of preventive.

## AI Etymology
Preventative comes from prevent (from Latin praevenire 'to come before, hinder', from prae- 'before' + venire 'to come') + the suffix -ative; a variant of preventive. The historical chain includes Latin praevenire and Latin venire. The quoted older senses, "to come before, hinder", "before", and "to come", supply the semantic anchors for preventative. The formation is best read as suffixal, compound, and borrowed: the word preventative carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a adj, "serving to prevent something, especially disease". English derivatives include preventatively; related English forms include prevent, prevention, and preventer. The result is a adj and noun whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.

## Topics
- Health & Medicine
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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preventative

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