Deterrent

How to spell deterrent

9 letters · 3 syllables

12 of the 27 people asked to spell deterrent in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

The most common mistake is deterrant. The letters people get wrong are highlighted.

deterrant deterrent

What people typed instead

• deterrant6 people
• deterent3 people

How to pronounce deterrent

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does deterrent mean?

1. nounSomething that discourages a person from acting, usually through fear of the consequences.
2. adjectiveTending to discourage someone from doing something.

Deterrent in a sentence

• noun

  The heavy fine acts as a real deterrent to illegal parking.

• adjective

  The company hoped the new penalties would have a deterrent effect on late payments.

• noun

  Visible security cameras are a powerful deterrent against shoplifting.

• adjective

  Bright lighting in the car park has a deterrent influence on vandals.

Where does deterrent come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb deterrere, meaning 'to frighten away' or 'to discourage', which was formed from the prefix de- (here acting as an intensifier, with a sense of 'away from') and the verb terrere, meaning 'to frighten'. That same terrere is the root that gives English 'terror', 'terrify', and 'terrible', so a deterrent is literally something that scares you off a course of action. English took the verb 'deter' in the early seventeenth century, and the adjective and noun 'deterrent' followed soon after to describe anything that holds people back through fear of consequences. By the twentieth century it had acquired its now common military sense, naming weapons whose chief purpose is to discourage an attack rather than to be used. The double r in the spelling traces straight back to the doubled r of terrere, which is the detail most worth remembering when writing it.

How the word is built

• de- (intensive, from)
• terr (from Latin terrere: to frighten)
• -ent (noun/adjective suffix)

People who misspell deterrent also struggle with

Of the Spelling Garden players who got deterrent wrong the first time, this is how many also got each of these wrong.

• connoisseur 100% of them got it wrong
• ambiguous 42% of them got it wrong