deterrence
noun
Simple meaning
Discouraging actions or preventing occurrences by instilling fear or doubt or anxiety.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihturuhnsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪˈtɝəns
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The act or process of discouraging actions or preventing occurrences by instilling fear or doubt or anxiety
The action of discouraging an action or event by instilling doubt or fear of the penalty or punishment.
The act of deterring, or the state of being deterred.
An action taken by states or alliances of nations against equally powerful alliances to prevent hostile action.
The art of producing in one's enemy the fear of attacking.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The act or process of discouraging actions or preventing occurrences by instilling fear or doubt or anxiety
Used this way, deterrence is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It sounds natural in ordinary conversation and in expressive writing alike.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The military doctrine that an enemy will be deterred from using nuclear weapons as long as he can be destroyed as a consequence.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- deterverb
- discourageverb
- preventivenoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: act or process of discouraging actions
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