obviate

American  

[ob-vee-eyt] / ˈɒb viˌeɪt /

verb (used with object)

obviates, present (3rd person singular) obviated, past participle, past obviating present participle

1. to anticipate and prevent or eliminate (difficulties, disadvantages, etc.) by effective measures; render unnecessary.

   to obviate the risk of serious injury.

   Synonyms:

   anticipate, avert, preclude

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obviate British  

/ ˈɒbvɪˌeɪt /

verb

1. (tr) to avoid or prevent (a need or difficulty)

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Usage

Only things that have not yet occurred can be obviated. For example, one can obviate a possible future difficulty, but not one that already exists

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• obviation
  noun
• obviator
  noun
• preobviate
  verb (used with object)
• obviable
  adjective
• unobviable
  adjective
• unobviated
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• obviating
  present
• obviated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• obviate
  simple
• obviates
  simple
• have obviated
  perfect
• has obviated
  perfect
• am obviating
  progressive
• are obviating
  progressive
• is obviating
  progressive
• have been obviating
  perfect progressive
• has been obviating
  perfect progressive

Past

• obviated
  simple
• had obviated
  perfect
• was obviating
  progressive
• were obviating
  progressive
• had been obviating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will obviate
  simple
• will have obviated
  perfect
• will be obviating
  progressive
• will have been obviating
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of obviate

1590–1600; from Latin obviātus, past participle of obviāre “to act contrary to,” derivative of obvius; see obvious, -ate ¹

Explanation

To obviate means to eliminate the need for something or to prevent something from happening. If you want to obviate the possibility of a roach infestation, clean your kitchen regularly. The prefix ob means "to go against." That makes sense when you look at the words obstruct and obstacle, but how about obstetrics? Why does the name of the branch of medicine dealing with birth have the same root as words that mean "stop" or "get in the way"? Because a midwife stands opposite to, or against, the woman giving birth.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

obviate obviates obviated obviating

As Bessent should understand, the violation of one logical condition can obviate the logic of another—what a logician might call an “antecedent condition.”

From Barron's ● Jan. 22, 2026

Strategy already set aside a $1.4 billion reserve for dividend and interest payments over the next two years to obviate the need to sell bitcoins in the near future.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 4, 2025

Railway lines, trucks, plastic products, electronic communication—all have tended both to obviate the need for manual dexterity and to chip away at people’s pride in self-sufficiency.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025

Still, as Ritholtz and Invictus point out, it’s hornbook economics that the proper way to deal with non-seasonally adjusted figures is to use year-to-year comparisons, which obviate seasonal trends.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2024

To go through kemmer without a partner is pretty hard on a Gethenian; better, then, simply obviate the misery and wasted worktime, and not go through kemmer at all.

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin

So this basically obviates the need for everybody to own their own vehicle.

From Salon ● Nov. 9, 2023

The telephone obviates the use of a bullhorn, with a soldier standing south of the border, reading out a message to the North Korean side.

From Washington Times ● Jul. 24, 2023

The XPS 17’s spacious 16:10 17-inch screen nearly obviates the need to use an external monitor.

From The Verge ● Feb. 2, 2022

When there’s so much pressure on how it ends, it obviates the pleasure we take in getting there—and with The Undoing, there wasn’t that much pleasure in the journey to begin with.

From Slate ● Nov. 30, 2020

This obviates the necessity for resetting, which can hardly be done without some error.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 3 "Gordon, Lord George" to "Grasses" by Various

That history, the majority found, obviated the need for the preclearance system.

From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2023

“Couldn’t you have solved this problem or precluded this, obviated this problem by obtaining a general release in your settlement?” he asked.

From Washington Times ● Jan. 18, 2023

Pressman acknowledged that the strong leadership team that was already in place when Ritchie left obviated the need for an interim artistic director.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2022

Technology has not obviated the need for sustained artillery capabilities and armor.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 22, 2022

They had been abandoned by the Senecas in their sudden surprise, and thus the most serious difficulty in the removal of Barton and his family to the settlements, was obviated.

From The Frontiersmen by Aimard, Gustave

The longer the scene, the more likely it was mostly concocted inside a computer, obviating multiple takes, camera angles and union personnel waiting around to engage in spurts of frenzied action.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025

Many of its 94 minutes are occupied with well-mounted car chases, stunts and gunfights, obviating the need for character development, past the traditional foes-become-friends dynamic.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2025

Sickness can hurt farm output by slowing animals' growth, so disease detection systems could improve efficiency by obviating the need for costly clinical testing.

From Salon ● May 15, 2024

The information contained in a paper return could be squirted over a modem as a series of 0’s and 1’s, obviating the need to kill trees and race to the post office.

From Slate ● Feb. 1, 2024

A gibbous moon rose above the shoulder of 27,824-foot Makalu, washing the slope beneath my boots in ghostly light, obviating the need for a headlamp.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

Related Words

• counteract
• forestall
• preclude