Word.ws English Dictionary

pre-emptive

pre-emptive is the alternative spelling of preemptive.

Meaning of preemptive

Adjective

preemptive (comparative more preemptive, superlative most preemptive)

  1. Made so as to deter an anticipated unpleasant situation.
    • a preemptive attack on the enemy
    Synonyms:
    preemptory
  2. Intended to interfere with an opponent's bidding.
    Synonyms:
    preemptory

Forms of pre-emptive

comparativemore pre-emptive
superlativemost pre-emptive

Words formed from pre-emptive

Questions about pre-emptive

What is pre-emptive the alternative spelling of?
Pre-emptive is the alternative spelling of preemptive.

Words near pre-emptive in the dictionary

  1. pre-empted
  2. pre-empting
  3. pre-emption
  4. pre-emptional
  5. pre-emptions
  6. pre-emptive
  7. pre-emptively
  8. pre-empts
  9. pre-engage
  10. pre-epidemic
  11. pre-episode

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pre-emptive (page history and authors); preemptive (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: “pre-emptive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pre-emptive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.