Definitions for prevent
prɪˈvɛntpre·vent

Princeton's WordNet(3.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. prevent, forestall, foreclose, preclude, forbid(verb)

   keep from happening or arising; make impossible

   "My sense of tact forbids an honest answer"; "Your role in the projects precludes your involvement in the competitive project"

2. prevent, keep(verb)

   stop (someone or something) from doing something or being in a certain state

   "We must prevent the cancer from spreading"; "His snoring kept me from falling asleep"; "Keep the child from eating the marbles"

Wiktionary(2.50 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. prevent(Verb)

   To stop; to keep (from happening).

   I brushed my teeth to prevent them from going yellow.

   Etymology: From preventen, from praeventus, perfect passive participle of praevenio, from prae + venio.

2. prevent(Verb)

   To take preventative measures.

   Etymology: From preventen, from praeventus, perfect passive participle of praevenio, from prae + venio.

3. prevent(Verb)

   To come before; to precede.

   Etymology: From preventen, from praeventus, perfect passive participle of praevenio, from prae + venio.

4. prevent(Verb)

   To outdo, surpass.

   Etymology: From preventen, from praeventus, perfect passive participle of praevenio, from prae + venio.

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Prevent(verb)

   to go before; to precede; hence, to go before as a guide; to direct

   Etymology: [L. praevenire, praeventum; prae before + venire to come. See Come.]

2. Prevent(verb)

   to be beforehand with; to anticipate

   Etymology: [L. praevenire, praeventum; prae before + venire to come. See Come.]

3. Prevent(verb)

   to intercept; to hinder; to frustrate; to stop; to thwart

   Etymology: [L. praevenire, praeventum; prae before + venire to come. See Come.]

4. Prevent(verb)

   to come before the usual time

   Etymology: [L. praevenire, praeventum; prae before + venire to come. See Come.]

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. PReVENT

   PReVENT is a European automotive industry activity co-funded by the European Commission to contribute to road safety by developing and demonstrating preventive safety applications and technologies. Preventive and active safety applications help drivers to avoid or mitigate accidents by using in-vehicle systems that sense the nature and significance of the danger, while taking the driver’s state into account. The PReVENT project is one of the largest initiative on road safety co-funded as an Integrated Project by the European Commission. The total budget amounts to more than €55 million for a duration of 4 years starting from February 2004 to January 2008. It involves more than 50 European partners from the most prominent vehicle manufacturers and equipment suppliers to the best intelligent vehicle research laboratories in Europe. Three general concepts have been followed throughout the PReVENT Integrated Project: The Virtual Safety Belt, the Time-To-Collision timescale and Three-layer architecture. The Virtual Safety Belt is the concept of integrating complementary safety functions in one vehicle. PReVENT partners have worked together to develop the virtual safety belt around the vehicle by

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Prevent

   prē-vent′, v.t. to hinder: to check: to render impossible: (orig.) to go before: to be earlier than.—v.t. Prēvene′ (rare), to precede.—n. Prevē′nience.—adj. Prevē′nient (Milt.), going before: preceding: preventive.—n. Preventabil′ity, the quality of being preventable.—adj. Preven′table, that may be prevented or hindered.—ns. Preven′ter, one who, or that which, prevents or hinders: (naut.) an additional rope or spar for strengthening the ordinary one; Preven′tion, act of preventing: anticipation or forethought: obstruction.—adjs. Preven′tive, Preven′tative, tending to prevent or hinder: preservative.—n. that which prevents: a preservative.—adv. Preven′tively.—n. Preven′tiveness.—Preventive service, the service rendered by the coastguard in preventing smuggling. [L. præventus, pa.p. of prævenīre—præ, before, venīre, to come.]

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'prevent' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #1505

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'prevent' in Written Corpus Frequency: #3288

3. Verbs Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'prevent' in Verbs Frequency: #219

How to pronounce prevent?

1. 

   Alex

   US English

   

   Daniel

   British

   

   Karen

   Australian

   

   Veena

   Indian

How to say prevent in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of prevent in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of prevent in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

Examples of prevent in a Sentence

1. Nathaniel Gleicher:

   I would say anonymity is an essential component of public debate, as we work on combating bad behaviors and bad actors in this way, we're continually thinking about,' What are the consequences that this could have for advocates ?' and' How do we ensure that we're focused on the harmful actors and that we're not putting barriers in place that prevent advocates from engaging ?'.

2. Carla Davidson:

   As far as impact to the environment, I think Pepsi is cleaning it up, and we’ll be working with them to prevent discharges like this from happening in the future, there was not a release to surface water that we know of, so that’s also a positive.

3. Albert Camus:

   Perhaps we cannot prevent this world from being a world in which children are tortured. But we can reduce the number of tortured children. And if you dont help us, who else in the world can help us do this?

4. Adam Schiff:

   These witnesses have defied the White House efforts to prevent their testimony by following the lawful requirements of subpoenas, the President has urged The President acolytes in Congress to use other means to try to prevent their testimony, but they won't be successful.

5. David Maxwell:

   The coronavirus crisis has exposed the [Chinese Communist Party] CCPs strategy to infiltrate and dominate international institutions for two main reasons: to ensure they act favorably toward the PRC and to prevent admittance of Taiwan to any international organizations, at the very basic level, it is about ensuring these organizations accept and adhere to the One China concept.

Images & Illustrations of prevent

Popularity rank by frequency of use