deterrent
/dɪˈtɛɹənt/US/dɪˈtɝənt/
deterrent adjective: serving to deter, preventing something from happening.
Adjective
deterrent (comparative more deterrent, superlative most deterrent)
- Serving to deter, preventing something from happening.
Noun
deterrent (plural deterrents)
- Something that deters.
- An extension of the system to serve new housing estates on the outskirts of the city, at an estimated cost of about £4,000,000 a mile, is being considered, but the narrow gauge, small clearances, and short platforms are deterrents.1955 January, Charles E. Lee, “The Glasgow Underground Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 23
- Along with trial by ordeal, hanging was the most effective deterrent that could be devised in an age without police or prisons.1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 175
deterrent meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada
deterrent in Tamil
- அச்சுறுத்தும், தடுத்து நிறுத்தி, தடுத்து நிறுத்துக்கூடிய, மீண்டும் நடப்பதைத் தடுக்கும், தடை, தடுத்துத் தயங்கச்செய்வது
deterrent in Malayalam
- discouragement, disincentive, damper
- ഭയപ്പെടുത്തി തടഞ്ഞു നിറുത്തുന്നത്, ഭയകാരണം, ഭീഷണി, തടസ്സപ്പെടുത്തുന്നത്, തിരുത്തൽശക്തി, നിരുത്സാഹപ്പെടുത്തപ്പെടൽ
deterrent in Kannada
- ತಡೆಯುವ, ಭಯದಿಂದಾದ ನಿಷ್ಕ್ರಿಯೆ, ಕಾರ್ಯನಿರ್ವಹಣೆಗೆ ತಡೆ, ತಡೆಯೊಡ್ಡುವುದು
Examples of deterrent in a sentence
- The salarians believed the genophage would be used as a deterrent, a position the turians viewed as naive.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Krogan: Genophage Codex entry:
- One argument made by proponents of the death penalty is that it is a strong deterrent to murder and other violent crimes, but evidence shows just the opposite.2014, Jimmy Carter, “Full Prisons and Legal Killing”, in A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN...
- Their behaviour is appalling and the presence of CCTV no deterrent.2024 November 13, Paul Bigland, “Much to admire... but pockets of neglect”, in RAIL, number 1022, page 48:
Forms of deterrent
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more deterrent |
| superlative | most deterrent |
| Noun | |
| plural | deterrents |
Origin of deterrent
Learned borrowing from Latin dēterrēns, dēterrentem.
Words formed from deterrent
Questions about deterrent
- What does deterrent mean?
- Deterrent means serving to deter, preventing something from happening.
- What is deterrent in Tamil?
- Deterrent in Tamil is அச்சுறுத்தும், தடுத்து நிறுத்தி, தடுத்து நிறுத்துக்கூடிய. See Deterrent meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use deterrent in a sentence?
- The salarians believed the genophage would be used as a deterrent, a position the turians viewed as naive.
- What part of speech is deterrent?
- Deterrent can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce deterrent?
- Deterrent is pronounced /dɪˈtɛɹənt/ (UK).
Words near deterrent in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: deterrent (page history and authors); deterrent (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); deterrent (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); deterrent (Kannada 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-deterrent.wav.
Cite this entry: “deterrent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/deterrent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.