preventable

preventable — adjective

1. describing harm, illness, injury, or a problem that could have been avoided if s

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

describing harm, illness, injury, or a problem that could have been avoided if someone had taken earlier action to stop it

Example

Most heart disease is preventable through diet and regular exercise.

collocation: preventable disease / preventable illness

The child's death was preventable — a simple vaccine would have saved her life.

collocation: preventable death

Common collocations
  • preventable disease
  • preventable death
  • preventable accident
  • preventable injury
  • preventable illness
  • preventable mistake
  • preventable error
  • preventable loss
  • preventable damage
  • entirely preventable
  • completely preventable
  • largely preventable
  • easily preventable
  • preventable by
  • preventable through
  • preventable with
Synonyms
  • avoidable

    more general than 'preventable'; can apply to any situation, not just negative outcomes

  • avertable

    less common; specifically used for disasters or crises that were narrowly avoided

  • stoppable

    informal; broader meaning — anything that can be halted, not necessarily beforehand

Antonyms
  • unavoidable

    applies to situations that could not have been prevented by any action

  • inevitable

    stronger than 'unavoidable'; suggests the outcome was certain to happen regardless of action

Grammar Patterns

preventable + noun

be + preventable

Usage Note

Frequently used with nouns describing negative outcomes — disease, death, accident, injury, mistake, error, loss, damage. Very common in medical, public-health, and safety contexts.

Common Mistakes

Washing hands is a preventable measure against infection.
Washing hands is a preventive measure against infection.
'preventable' means something that can be stopped; 'preventive' means something that helps stop it.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All three words describe something that can be stopped from happening, but they differ in scope and context. 'Preventable' is the most common and specific — it strongly implies that an illness, accident, or disaster could have been stopped by advance action (e.g., 'a preventable disease'). 'Avoidable' is broader and works in everyday situations both positive and negative (e.g., 'an avoidable argument', 'an avoidable delay'). 'Avertable' is much rarer and usually refers to a crisis or disaster that was narrowly avoided at the last moment (e.g., 'an avertable tragedy'). For most writing, 'preventable' is the natural choice for negative outcomes, while 'avoidable' covers the widest range of contexts.

preventable ↗avoidableavertable

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • preventable cause of death
  • preventable health problem
  • preventable safety issue
  • preventable medical error

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

Derived from the Latin 'praevenire' — 'prae-' (before) + 'venire' (to come) — meaning 'to come before or anticipate'. English borrowed 'prevent' via French in the 1400s, originally meaning 'to act in anticipation of'. The suffix '-able' (able to be) was added to form 'preventable', first recorded in the early 1600s.