Word.ws English Dictionary

prevents

prevents is the third-person singular simple present indicative of prevent.

Meaning of prevent

Verb

prevent (third-person singular simple present prevents, present participle preventing, simple past and past participle prevented)

  1. (transitive) To stop (an outcome); to keep from (doing something).
    • I brush my teeth regularly to prevent tooth decay.
  2. (archaic, intransitive) To take preventative measures.
    • I think you must be mad, and she shall not have a glimpse of it while I'm here to prevent!1897 October 16, Henry James, What Maisie Knew, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Herbert S. Stone & Co., →OCLC
  3. (obsolete, transitive) To come before; to precede.
    • We pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us.1549 March 7, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers, The Booke of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacramentes, […], London: […] Edowardi Whitchurche […], →OCLC
  4. (obsolete, transitive) To outdo, surpass.
    • With that he put his spurres vnto his steed, / With speare in rest, and toward him did fare, / Like shaft out of a bow preuenting speed.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC
  5. (obsolete, transitive) To be beforehand with; to anticipate.
    • their ready guilt preventing thy commandsc. 1699 – 1703, Alexander Pope, “The First Book of Statius His Thebais”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC

Words that rhyme with prevents

Questions about prevents

What is prevents the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Prevents is the third-person singular simple present indicative of prevent.

Words near prevents in the dictionary

  1. preventors
  2. preventory
  3. preventral
  4. preventrals
  5. preventricular
  6. prevents
  7. preventure
  8. preverb
  9. preverbal
  10. preverbally
  11. preverbals

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prevents (page history and authors); prevent (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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