Word.ws English Dictionary

deterrence

/dɪˈtɛɹəns/US/dɪˈtɝɹəns/

deterrence noun: the act of deterring, or the state of being deterred.

Noun

deterrence (countable and uncountable, plural deterrences)

  1. The act of deterring, or the state of being deterred.
    • The policy relies on nuclear deterrence.
    • Strict penalties act as a deterrence against theft.
  2. An action taken by states or alliances of nations against equally powerful alliances to prevent hostile action.
    • policy of deterrence
  3. The art of producing in one's enemy the fear of attacking.
    1. (specifically) Nuclear deterrence: discouraging nuclear attack through the threat of nuclear retaliation.
  4. The action of discouraging an action or event by instilling doubt or fear of the penalty or punishment.

deterrence meaning in Tamil and Arabic

deterrence in Tamil

ஒன்றைத் தயங்கவைத்தல்

deterrence in Arabic

art of producing fear of attacking
رَدْع radʕ
act of deterring
رَدْع radʕ
action taken by states or alliances
رَدْع radʕ

Examples of deterrence in a sentence

  • Such analysis introduces significant legal uncertainty and may lead to excessive deterrence against wolf packing.
  • The question of how many weapons are required for credible deterrence against India is purely academic.
  • But the American government worries that MAD-style deterrence will no longer work.

All 14 example sentences with deterrence

Synonyms of deterrence

Forms of deterrence

pluraldeterrences

Origin of deterrence

From the stem of deterrent + -ence.

Words formed from deterrence

Questions about deterrence

What does deterrence mean?
Deterrence means the act of deterring, or the state of being deterred.
What is deterrence in Tamil?
Deterrence in Tamil is ஒன்றைத் தயங்கவைத்தல். See Deterrence meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is deterrence?
Deterrence is a noun.
How do you pronounce deterrence?
Deterrence is pronounced /dɪˈtɛɹəns/ (UK).
What is the plural of deterrence?
The plural of deterrence is deterrences.

Words near deterrence in the dictionary

  1. deterrability
  2. deterrable
  3. deterration
  4. deterrations
  5. deterred
  6. deterrence
  7. deterrences
  8. deterrency
  9. deterrent
  10. deterrently
  11. deterrents

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deterrence (page history and authors); deterrence (Tamil Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-deterrence.wav.

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