Meaning & use
prevent
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To make sure something does not happen.
Grammar: Takes an object: prevent accidents.
Patterns
- prevent something
- prevent something from happening
Washing your hands helps prevent illness.
Good locks can prevent break-ins.
Regular checks prevent small faults from becoming big ones.
verbtransitive
To stop someone from doing something.
Grammar: Usually followed by from and an -ing form: prevent him from leaving.
Patterns
- prevent someone from doing something
Heavy snow prevented us from leaving.
A fence prevents children from reaching the pool.
Nothing can prevent her from trying again.
Word forms
| third person singular | prevents |
|---|---|
| past tense | prevented |
| past participle | prevented |
| -ing form | preventing |
Common combinations
- prevent an accident
- Seat belts prevent many accidents.
- prevent someone from leaving
- The guard prevented him from leaving.
- help prevent
- Exercise helps prevent heart disease.
- prevent the spread
- Masks prevent the spread of germs.
- prevent damage
- Covers prevent damage to the furniture.
Synonyms and how they differ
- stop
- Stop is more general and can also mean ending something already happening, while prevent means stopping it before it starts.
- avert
- Avert is more formal and often refers to danger or disaster.
- hinder
- Hinder means slow or make difficult, while prevent means completely stop.
- avoid
- Avoid means you keep away from something yourself, while prevent often involves acting to stop another thing.
Opposites
Word family
- prevention noun
- the act of stopping something
- preventable adjective
- able to be stopped
- preventive adjective
- done to stop something happening
- preventative adjective
- another form of preventive
Commonly confused: prevent or avoid?
prevent vs avoid
Avoid means to keep away from something; prevent means to stop it from happening.
Practice
The storm ___ the flight from taking off.
Choose one answer.
Prevent takes an object and stops something from happening. The other verbs do not fit the pattern with from or the meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “prevent”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.