contraceptive
Americanadjective
-
tending or serving to prevent conception or impregnation.
-
pertaining to contraception.
noun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of contraceptive
First recorded in 1890–95; contra- 1 ( def. ) + (con)ceptive ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
As well as anti-depressants, women can be offered the contraceptive pill and other contraceptives like the Mirena coil, which helps to regulate hormones.
From BBC ● May 16, 2026
Organon is best known for its Nexplanon contraceptive implant, but also offers fertility treatments and an expanding pipeline of biosimilars, Food and Drug Administration-approved versions of existing drugs.
From Barron's ● Apr. 27, 2026
Jade Boden-de Mel first experienced "unbearable" pain at 17 but says medics could not identify the cause and prescribed the contraceptive pill to manage it.
From BBC ● Apr. 8, 2026
Current male contraceptive options remain limited to condoms and vasectomies.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 7, 2026
Ritual and ethical absention and the use of contraceptive drugs seem to have played the major part in maintaining this stability.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
More than 100 million women worldwide now use oral contraceptives daily.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
The teen birthrate fell 7% last year, extending a yearslong decline related to public-health campaigns and growing use of longer-acting contraceptives.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
She was given various contraceptives to ease the pain but they did not help.
From BBC ● Mar. 2, 2026
Most efforts to create male contraceptives have focused on stopping sperm production.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 14, 2026
—Gethenians tend to have their children young; most of them, after the age of twenty-four or so, use contraceptives, and they cease to be fertile in the female phase at about forty.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
