Word.ws English Dictionary

interceptive

interceptive adjective: pertaining to the coordination, joining, and interaction or interference of a moving object with another (moving or stationary) object.

Adjective

interceptive (not comparable)

  1. Pertaining to the coordination, joining, and interaction or interference of a moving object with another (moving or stationary) object.
    • If there is an abnormal interceptive contact the transducer is jolted more than once in a single closure of the jaws and a double sound is produced (Fig. 29.4).1976, Derek John Anderson, Declan John Anderson, Bruce Matthews, Mastication: Proceedings of a Symposium on the Clinical and Physiological Aspects of Mastication Held at the Medical School...
    • Even if fast interceptive actions are continuously influenced by visual information, then surely slower interceptive actions like catching are.2003, P.J. Beck, J.C. Dessing, C.E. Peper, D. Bullock, “Modelling the control of interceptive actions”, in Philosophical Transactions: Biological sciences, page 1512
  2. Pertaining to the interruption of a trajectory or course of development to stop it or divert it to a new trajectory or course of development, as opposed to correction after the fact.
    • interceptive orthodontics
    • Identification and treatment of the disease in its early stages by the use of non-surgical techniques (interceptive caries treatment) therefore seem reasonable.2002, Anders Hugoson, Margit Falk, Sylvia Johansson, Consensus Conference on Caries in the Primary Dentition and Its Clinical Management, 14-15 November 2001, page 48
  3. (more specifically) Pertaining to the prevention of pregnancy by interfering with the implantation of the embryo in the uterus.
    • Our calculations on the relationship between uterotrophic and interceptive activities support the concept that interruption of early pregnancy is one of the properties of an "estrogenic" compound (Carlborg, 1970).1978, M. Oettel, J. Draffehn, M. Koch, A. Kurischoko, Elke Ohme, J. Strecke, Irmgard Tiroke, “Relationship between Uterotrophic and Interceptive Activities of Steroidal Estrogents”, in...
    • The crude petroleum ether, chloroform and alcoholic extracts of the root administered orally at the single dose of 100 mg/kg bw given at the post implantation period showed 100 per cent interceptive activity in mature female mice.2004, Reviews on Indian Medicinal Plants, page 90
  4. Pertaining to the approach and destruction of an attacking enemy force.
    • As soon as the Germans took the initial action, the French could have launched an interceptive strike.1981, Michael I. Handel, The Diplomacy of Surprise, Hitler, Nixon, Sadat, page 65
    • This means that the United States will put into space an anti-missile system comprising a large number of small, highly intelligent interceptive rockets, rather than build a large scale multi-layer defensive shield in space as originally planned.1989, Daily Report: China - Issues 80-89, page 68

Noun

interceptive (plural interceptives)

  1. A drug or device that prevents pregnancy by interfering with the implantation of an embryo in the uterus.
    • Interceptives are neither contraceptives nor abortifacients since they are unable to inhibit fertilization or to interfere with an established implantation in primates ( Morris & Van Wagenen, 1973).1980, Elsayed Saad Eldin Hafez, Human Reproduction: Conception and Contraception, page 747
    • Notelovitz and Bard also used 30mg of conjugated estrogen daily for five days in 359 women who requested an interceptive.1988, William M. Green, Rape, page 136

Examples of interceptive in a sentence

  • Interceptive actions are common in everyday life and are instrumental in helping humans to adapt to their complex and uncertain environments.2004, Simon Bennett, Keith Davids, Geert J.P. Savelsbergh, Interceptive Actions in Sport: Information and Movement:
  • Usually when an interceptive monitor is chosen over a non-interceptive monitor it is because the signal levels are too low to be practical for the non-interceptive monitors.2004, Michael Plum, “Interceptive Beam Diagnostics— Signal Creation and Materials Interactions”, in Thomas Shea, R. Coles Sibley III...
  • If interceptive tasks consist of being at the right place at the right time, the originality of the athletic relay task is to be found in the fact that receivers have to defer the time-to-encounter.2019, Alain Boyadjian, “Timing in Relay Running”, in Benoit G. Bardy, Reinoud J. Bootsma, Yves Guiard, editors, Studies in Perception and...
  • Early treatment, preventive (interceptive) orthodontics, and treatment timing are much-debated and still somewhat controversial subjects (Tulloch et al. 1997).2011, Thomas Rakosi, Thomas M. Graber, Orthodontic and Dentofacial Orthopedic Treatment, page 18:

Forms of interceptive

pluralinterceptives

Origin of interceptive

From intercept + -ive.

Words that rhyme with interceptive

Questions about interceptive

What does interceptive mean?
Interceptive means pertaining to the coordination, joining, and interaction or interference of a moving object with another (moving or stationary) object.
How do you use interceptive in a sentence?
Interceptive actions are common in everyday life and are instrumental in helping humans to adapt to their complex and uncertain environments.
What part of speech is interceptive?
Interceptive can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near interceptive in the dictionary

  1. interception
  2. interception tries
  3. interception try
  4. interceptional
  5. interceptions
  6. interceptive
  7. interceptives
  8. interceptor
  9. interceptors
  10. interceptress
  11. interceptresses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: interceptive (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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Cite this entry: “interceptive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/interceptive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.