Preventative

How to spell preventative

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce preventative

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does preventative mean?

1. adjectiveDesigned or intended to stop something undesirable, such as illness or damage, from occurring.
2. nounA substance or action that prevents something, especially a disease.

Preventative in a sentence

• adjective

  The clinic offers preventative care to catch problems early.

• noun

  The vaccine works as a preventative rather than a cure.

• adjective

  Regular servicing is a preventative measure against engine failure.

• noun

  Daily exercise is a useful preventative against heart disease.

Where does preventative come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb praevenire, which meant 'to come before' or 'to anticipate', formed from prae 'before' and venire 'to come'. From the same root English also gained 'prevent', which originally carried the now obsolete sense of arriving ahead of someone, before settling into the modern meaning of stopping something from happening. The longer adjective 'preventative' appeared in English in the 1600s, built by attaching the suffix -ative to the verb stem in the same way as 'talkative' or 'authoritative'. It has always existed alongside the slightly shorter and older 'preventive', and the two are interchangeable in meaning. The extra middle syllable is precisely the spelling trap: writers must remember the '-tat-' sequence, since the rival form 'preventive' simply drops it.

How the word is built

• pre- (before)
• vent (from venire: to come)
• -ative (adjective/noun suffix)