Prohibited

How to spell prohibited

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce prohibited

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does prohibited mean?

1. verbFormally forbidden or banned by a rule, law, or authority.

Prohibited in a sentence

• Smoking is strictly prohibited inside the terminal building.

• The company prohibited staff from sharing client data without consent.

Where does prohibited come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb prohibere, which literally meant 'to hold back' or 'to keep in front of', formed from pro 'forward, in front' and habere 'to have or hold'. The sense moved naturally from physically holding someone back to forbidding them by rule or law. English took it in through the Latin past participle prohibitus, and the verb prohibit was established by the early 1400s, with the inflected form prohibited following the regular English pattern. The same habere root quietly powers a surprising family of English words, including habit, exhibit, and inhibit, all sharing that idea of holding. Knowing the buried -hibit- (hold) explains the single h and the spelling pro-hibit-ed, since there is no double letter despite how the word sounds.

How the word is built

• pro- (forward, in front of)
• -hibit- (from Latin habere: to have, to hold)
• -ed (past tense/participle suffix)