prevention
Americannoun
-
the act of preventing; effectual hindrance.
-
a preventive.
This serum is a prevention against disease.
noun
-
the act of preventing
-
a hindrance, obstacle, or impediment
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of prevention
1520–30; < Late Latin praeventiōn- (stem of praeventiō ) a forestalling. See prevent, -ion
Explanation
When an action stops something from happening, like assigning extra teachers to watch a playground during recess to prevent bullying, it's called prevention. The noun prevention comes up most often when people are trying to keep something bad in check, like crime, disease, or forest fires. Educating kids about nutrition is one form of obesity prevention, for example, and lowering speed limits can help with accident prevention. The word prevent is at the root of prevention, and it comes from the Latin praeventus, "anticipate or hinder."
Vocabulary lists containing prevention
Word Generation Weekly - Series 2
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Chemical Engineering
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: pre-
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Riyadh demanded in a statement that Iraq take “all necessary measures to ensure the prevention of the use of its territory as a launching point” for attacks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
The growing understanding of the mouth-body connection is also leading to new diagnostic tools, prevention strategies and treatments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
In a statement, the council said it had engaged with the relevant statutory agencies to look at how overdose prevention facilities operated elsewhere and would "continue to advocate for evidence-based, long-term solutions".
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
Beyond financing concerns, she also lamented the "serious pushback on human rights" for those with HIV, which was "pushing people underground" and away from receiving testing, prevention and treatment.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
Of course fire prevention was the last thing the Herdmans knew anything about—except to be against it, I guess—so you had to hope the reporter wouldn’t pick one of them to interview.
From "The Best School Year Ever" by Barbara Robinson
U.S. taxpayers invested billions of dollars in the effort and were able, until recently, to access treatments and preventions for the virus without paying out-of-pocket for them.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 7, 2023
"Epidemic preventions have been lifted...COVID-19 testing sites are mostly being dismantled... So, because right now in Chaoyang district cases are quite high, it is better to stock up on some medicines," he said.
From Reuters ● Dec. 7, 2022
DuckDuckGo CEO Gabe Weinberg said at the time that the reason for it was a search syndication agreement with Microsoft, and that more updates on third-party tracker preventions were coming.
From The Verge ● Aug. 5, 2022
As a budding health reporter, I tried to learn everything I could about Alzheimer's and wrote about new research on preventions and treatments that everyone wanted to believe had potential.
From Salon ● Feb. 13, 2022
One of the best of these preventions is a system of fire lanes.
From Wood and Forest by Noyes, William
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.
