preventable

Language: en

🇺🇸 /prɪˈvɛntəbəl/

📖 Definitions

  1. adjective
    Capable of being prevented or avoided; able to be stopped from happening or occurring.; Able to be averted or forestalled by taking appropriate measures or precautions.; Used in medical and public health contexts to describe diseases, injuries, or deaths that could have been avoided through intervention, treatment, or lifestyle changes.

🔗 Details

Word forms

Comparative: more preventable Superlative: most preventable

Collocations

preventable diseasepreventable deathpreventable causepreventable errorpreventable tragedypreventable blindness

Derivatives

preventpreventionpreventivepreventivelyunpreventablepreventably

Synonyms

avoidableavertablestoppableforestallable

Antonyms

unpreventableinevitableunavoidable

Commonly confused

preventive
EN: 'Preventive' means intended or designed to prevent something (active role); 'preventable' means capable of being prevented (passive quality).
preventible
EN: 'Preventible' is a rare variant spelling; 'preventable' is the standard and overwhelmingly preferred form.

Spelling tips

EN: Use 'preventable' (with -able), not 'preventible'. The suffix -able is standard here, unlike some words that take -ible (e.g., 'visible', 'possible').

💬 Examples

  1. Many childhood diseases are preventable through vaccination.

  2. The accident was entirely preventable if proper safety protocols had been followed.

  3. Heart disease remains one of the leading preventable causes of death worldwide.