proactive
UK/pɹəʊˈæk.tɪv//pɹoʊˈæk.tɪv/
proactive adjective: acting in advance to deal with an expected change or difficulty.
Adjective
proactive (comparative more proactive, superlative most proactive)
- Acting in advance to deal with an expected change or difficulty.
- We can deal with each problem as it pops up, or we can take a proactive stance and try to prevent future problems.
- Staff are also proactive in approaching any passengers looking as though they need assistance, rather than waiting to be approached.2019 December 4, Andy Coward, “Derby's crowning achievement”, in Rail, page 56
- Synonyms:
- anticipatory, forward-looking
proactive meaning in Telugu, Punjabi, Arabic and Persian
proactive in Telugu
- acting in advance
- ముందెత్తున mundettuna
proactive in Punjabi
- ਪ੍ਰੋਐਕਟਿਵ
proactive in Arabic
- acting in advance
- وِقَائِيّ wiqāʔiyy, استباق الْأَحْدَاث
proactive in Persian
- acting in advance
- پیش فعال
More languagesFewer languages
- proactive in Thai
- การป้องกัน
Examples of proactive in a sentence
- We’re already taking proactive steps to protect our hip pockets in the face of rising interest rates.
- However, an implication floats over the proactive, constructive intent of the phrase: its element of distance, coolness, indifference.
- "Where I come from 'proactive defense' is a euphemism for "first strike." "This is not that approach, Putzho.
Synonyms of proactive
Antonyms
Forms of proactive
| comparative | more proactive |
|---|---|
| superlative | most proactive |
Origin of proactive
From pro- + active; originally coined 1933 by Paul Whiteley and Gerald Blankfort in a psychology paper, used in technical sense. Used in a popular context and sense (courage, perseverance) in 1946 book Man’s Search for Meaning by neuropsychiatrist Viktor Emil Frankl, in the context of dealing with the Holocaust, as contrast with reactive.
Words formed from proactive
Words that rhyme with proactive
- active
- inactive
- reactive
- attractive
- extractive
- protractive
- abstractive
- factive
- hyperactive
- interactive
- radioactive
- subtractive
14 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about proactive
- What does proactive mean?
- Proactive means acting in advance to deal with an expected change or difficulty.
- What is proactive in Telugu?
- Proactive in Telugu is ముందెత్తున (mundettuna). See Proactive meaning in Telugu.
- What part of speech is proactive?
- Proactive is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce proactive?
- Proactive is pronounced /pɹəʊˈæk.tɪv/ (UK).
Words near proactive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: proactive (page history and authors); proactive (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-us-proactive.ogg.
Cite this entry: “proactive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/proactive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.