Meaning & use
preparedness
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Meaning
noununcountable
The condition of being ready, with the plans and supplies needed to cope with something that might happen.
Grammar: Uncountable: say a lack of preparedness, not a preparedness.
Patterns
- preparedness for something
- a state of preparedness
The city tested its preparedness for earthquakes with a drill.
Parents praised the school's preparedness during the storm.
Emergency preparedness begins with a simple family plan.
Common combinations
- emergency preparedness
- Emergency preparedness training is required for all staff.
- disaster preparedness
- Disaster preparedness saved many lives during the flood.
- state of preparedness
- The hospital kept a constant state of preparedness.
- military preparedness
- The minister spoke about military preparedness.
- lack of preparedness
- A lack of preparedness left the town without clean water.
Synonyms and how they differ
- readiness
- Readiness is the more common everyday word and also means willingness, while preparedness focuses on having plans and supplies in place.
- preparation
- Preparation is the act of getting ready, whereas preparedness is the resulting state of being ready.
- alertness
- Alertness means watchfulness in the moment, while preparedness means having made arrangements ahead of time.
Opposites
Word family
- prepare verb
- to get ready or make something ready
- prepared adjective
- ready for something
- preparation noun
- the act of getting ready
- unprepared adjective
- not ready for something
- unpreparedness noun
- the state of not being ready
Commonly confused: preparedness or preparation?
preparedness vs preparation
Preparation names the work of getting ready, as in preparation for an exam. Preparedness names the ready state afterward, as in flood preparedness.
Practice
The government increased funding for ___ after the hurricane exposed gaps in its plans.
Choose one answer.
Preparedness means the state of being ready for an emergency, which fits funding after a hurricane. The other options are real nouns but have different meanings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “preparedness”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.