preventive
/pɹɪˈvɛntɪv/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.50 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Preventing, hindering, or acting as an obstacle to.
adj
adj
Slowing the development of an illness; prophylactic.
noun
A contraceptive, especially a condom.
Example Sentences
- "...and I sometimes think whether, like the ancient king, it would not be prudent to make an offering to destiny, and throw my set of emeralds into the lake." Emily could not but deprecate the emeralds being destined to any such preventive service;..."
- "Physick is either curative or preventive."
- "Any previous counsel or preventive understanding."
- "Dogs should be warmly but airily housed; heartily, but not heatingly, fed — old Indian meal, mixed with oatmeal, suppawn, is the best general food, with a small quantity of salt, which is a preventive against worms […]"
- "A good preventive against heart disease is a healthy lifestyle."
- "Eaten with sugar yaourt is very palatable and refreshing in warm weather and is said to be a preventive of fever."
Etymology
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
more preventive (comparative)
most preventive (superlative)
preventative (alternative)
preventives (plural)