preventive

American  

[pri-ven-tiv] / prɪˈvɛn tɪv /

Also preventative

adjective

1. Medicine/Medical. of or noting a drug, vaccine, etc., for preventing disease; prophylactic.

2. serving to prevent or hinder.

   preventive measures.

---

noun

preventives plural

1. Medicine/Medical. a drug or other substance for preventing disease.

2. a preventive agent or measure.

preventive British  

/ prɪˈvɛntɪv /

adjective

1. tending or intended to prevent or hinder

2. med

   1. tending to prevent disease; prophylactic

   2. of or relating to the branch of medicine concerned with prolonging life and preventing disease

3. (in Britain) of, relating to, or belonging to the customs and excise service or the coastguard

---

noun

1. something that serves to prevent or hinder

2. med any drug or agent that tends to prevent or protect against disease

3. another name for contraceptive

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonpreventiveness
  noun
• preventiveness
  noun
• unpreventiveness
  noun
• nonpreventive
  adjective
• unpreventative
  adjective
• unpreventive
  adjective
• nonpreventively
  adverb
• preventively
  adverb
• unpreventively
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• preventives
  plural

Etymology

Origin of preventive

First recorded in 1630–40; prevent + -ive

Explanation

Anything preventive hinders or stops something, especially diseases. When you prevent something, you stop it from happening. Likewise, anything preventive is used to ward off a bad outcome. Wearing a warm coat is preventative: it keeps you from getting cold. Saving your money is preventive because it will keep you from the poorhouse if you lose your job. Most often, this word is used in medicine. Preventive (or preventative) measures keep you from getting sick. Stretching before a workout is preventive, because it can keep you injury-free.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

preventive preventives

“There’s not even a billing code or a system for preventive healthcare. Doctors, scientists and technologists lost control. Healthcare is the only system on earth where both sides of the marketplace are wildly unhappy.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026

Some animals also received preventive antibiotics, while others had the IL-1β inflammatory pathway genetically removed.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 13, 2026

Plus, the only medical care a healthy person needs is preventive care, and that is also free of out-of-pocket cost.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

The court ordered that the doctor be put in preventive detention, following his prison sentence.

From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026

Two deacons wedged themselves around Brother Jackson as a preventive measure and two large determined- looking men walked down the aisle toward Sister Monroe.

From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou

She packs a special bag for Pepper, which includes food, water bowls, regular medications, flea and tick preventives, a litter bag, leash, collar, bedding and grooming supplies.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 4, 2023

It will also include clinical trials of treatments and preventives, which it hopes to launch by fall.

From Science Magazine ● Jun. 9, 2022

That’s different from the way we typically experience vaccines: as preventives for diseases that feel controlled or even obsolete.

From Slate ● Jul. 1, 2021

Websites touting miracle cures and preventives – herbs, teas, essential oils, tinctures and colloidal silver – are prevalent.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 31, 2020

Ordinary citizens also offered advice and preventives through the town’s newspapers.

From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy