Word.ws English Dictionary

prep

/pɹɛp/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

prep noun: preparation. Also the abbreviation of preposition.

Noun (1)

prep (countable and uncountable, plural preps)

  1. (countable) Preparation.
    • There was a bit of prep to set the drill press up for the operation. First, the table had to be rotated 90 degrees. Next, I had to set up a fence to cut each tenon exactly on center.2026 August, Collin Knoff, “Mid-Century Modern Table”, in Popular Woodworking, volume 290, number 4, page 48
  2. A preparatory race or workout.
  3. (countable, informal) A prep school.
  4. (countable, informal) A student or graduate of a prep school, a preppy.
    1. (US, derogatory, informal, slang) A person using the styles and mannerisms (especially in terms of fashion) associated with prep students.
  5. (UK, uncountable, chiefly private schools) Homework; work set to do outside class time.
  6. (Australia) Nursery school; preschool.
  7. (Philippines) Preparatory level; the last two levels or the fourth and fifth years of preschool; the two levels before first grade.

Verb

prep (third-person singular simple present preps, present participle prepping, simple past and past participle prepped)

  1. (informal, transitive) To prepare.
    • prep someone for something
    Synonyms:
    prep up

Noun (2) capitalized: PrEP

PrEP

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of pre-exposure prophylaxis.
    • ‘We talked about it at the beginning and said it would be fine. Are you on PrEP?’
      ‘Of course, babes! I was first in the queue! So you both see other guys?’2020, Paul Mendez, Rainbow Milk, Dialogue Books (2021), page 326
    • I was already on PrEP, but we were good about condoms.2020, Bryan Washington, Memorial, Atlantic Books (2021), page 152

Also used as

prep is also the abbreviation of preposition.

prep is also the alternative form of PrEP.

Examples of prep in a sentence

  • The prepping of this salad will seem easy in comparison with the cooking and baking we've been doing.
  • I need to prep up for the surgery.
  • Can you prep up the next client?

All 21 example sentences with prep

Synonyms of prep

Forms of prep

Noun
pluralpreps
alternative formprep
Verb
third-person singular presentpreps
present participleprepping
past participleprepped
pastprepped

Plural of prep: preps

Words formed from prep

Phrases with prep

Words that rhyme with prep

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about prep

What does prep mean?
Prep means preparation.
What part of speech is prep?
Prep can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce prep?
Prep is pronounced /pɹɛp/.
What is the plural of prep?
The plural of prep is preps.

Words near prep in the dictionary

  1. preoxygenate
  2. preoxygenated
  3. preoxygenation
  4. preoxygenations
  5. preoxygenator
  6. prep
  7. prep cook
  8. prep cooks
  9. prep out
  10. prep pad
  11. prep room

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prep (page history and authors); PrEP (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: En-ca-prep.ogg, En-us-ncalif-prep1.ogg.

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