prevention
noun
Simple meaning
Any measure intended to limit health-related risks.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
preevehnshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pɹiˈvɛnʃən
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
medicine
Any measure intended to limit health-related risks (such as information campaigns, vaccination, early diagnosis etc.).
The act of preventing or hindering; obstruction of action, access, or approach; thwarting.
Precaution; forethought.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Any measure intended to limit health-related risks (such as information campaigns, vaccination, early diagnosis etc.).
Used this way, prevention is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
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.
Limiting the number of children born.
A federal agency in the Department of Health and Human Services.
The United Nations office responsible for crime prevention and criminal justice and law reform.
The United Nations office responsible for crime prevention and criminal justice and law reform.
An agency of the United Nations that promotes drug control and crime prevention.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.