Word.ws English Dictionary

abundance of caution

abundance of caution noun: caution used to justify preemptive measures that are likely not strictly necessary.

Noun

abundance of caution

  1. Caution used to justify preemptive measures that are likely not strictly necessary.
    • out of an abundance of caution
    • Although the minister is in good health, he has been hospitalized today out of an abundance of caution.

Origin of abundance of caution

Calque of Latin abundans cautela. See also the direct borrowing ex abundante cautela.

Questions about abundance of caution

What does abundance of caution mean?
Abundance of caution means caution used to justify preemptive measures that are likely not strictly necessary.
What part of speech is abundance of caution?
Abundance of caution is a noun.

Words near abundance of caution in the dictionary

  1. abumbrellar
  2. abun
  3. abuna
  4. abunas
  5. abundance
  6. abundance of caution
  7. abundances
  8. abundancies
  9. abundancy
  10. abundancy index
  11. abundant

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: abundance of caution (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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