prophylactic
Syllables: pro·phy·lac·ticUK/pɹɒfəˈlæktɪk/
prophylactic noun: a medicine which preserves or defends against disease; a preventive.
Noun
prophylactic (plural prophylactics)
- A medicine which preserves or defends against disease; a preventive.
- A prophylactic condom.
- It is not clear whether such education is to be directed to homosexuals (for whom prophylactics are not a contraceptive) or to heterosexuals as well (for whom prophylactics are a contraceptive).1977, Human Life Center, International Review of Natural Family Planning, Human Life Center, St. John's University, page 2
- Given the widespread use of coitus interruptus and male prophylactics as contraceptive practices in France […]1994, Mary Louise Roberts, Civilization Without Sexes: Reconstructing Gender in Postwar France, 1917–1927, University of Chicago Press, page 96
- A prophylactic condom.
- Any device or mechanism intended to prevent harmful consequences.
- The securities laws are a prophylactic against stock fraud.
- Since tere are increasingly powerful anti-free speech tendencies in the left in general and in the Lesbian and Gay movements in particular in the form of the antiporn movement and other tendencies, I will quote extensively from the second chapter of On Liberty, "On The Liberty Of Thought And...1984 December 8, Robert Halfhill, “Pornography, Free Speech and Gay Separatism”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 21, page 5
Adjective
prophylactic (comparative more prophylactic, superlative most prophylactic)
- Serving to prevent or protect against an undesired effect, especially disease or pregnancy.
- Synonyms:
- preventative
prophylactic meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
prophylactic in Tamil
- முற்காப்பி
prophylactic in Bengali
- প্রতিরোধক
prophylactic in Malayalam
- precautionary, preventive, preventative
- നിവാരണപരമായ, തടുക്കുന്ന, നിവര, നിരോധിക്കുന്ന, മുൻകരുതലായ, സംരക്ഷണപരമായ
- precaution, preventive measure, safeguard
- നിവാരണമാർഗ്ഗം, രോഗനിവാരണം, നിവാരണഷൗധം, രോഗപ്രതിരോധഷൗധം, കരുതൽ നടപടികൾ, മുൻകരുതൽ
prophylactic in Kannada
- ರೋಗ ನಿರೋಧಕ, ರೋಗರಕ್ಷಕ, ತಡೆಯಬಲ್ಲ
More languagesFewer languages
- prophylactic in Arabic
- اِحْتِرَازِيّ iḥtirāziyy
- prophylactic in Indonesian
- profilaksis
Examples of prophylactic in a sentence
- Prophylactic virostatic treatment with aciclovir did not prevent cytomegalovirus infection in an immune suppressed patient.
- Group 2, the never or prophylactic group, was also small compared with group 1.
- Moreover, the study introduced a prophylactic method of intrawound application of vancomycin powder for prevention of infection during open elbow arthrolysis.
Synonyms of prophylactic
Forms of prophylactic
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | prophylactics |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more prophylactic |
| superlative | most prophylactic |
Origin of prophylactic
From Latin prophylacticus, from Ancient Greek προφυλακτικός (prophulaktikós, “prophylactic”).
Words formed from prophylactic
Phrases with prophylactic
Words that rhyme with prophylactic
- galactic
- didactic
- tactic
- lactic
- nongalactic
- phonotactic
- syntactic
- backtick
- chiropractic
- factic
- graphotactic
- nonprophylactic
1 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about prophylactic
- What does prophylactic mean?
- Prophylactic means a medicine which preserves or defends against disease; a preventive.
- What is prophylactic in Tamil?
- Prophylactic in Tamil is முற்காப்பி. See Prophylactic meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is prophylactic?
- Prophylactic can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce prophylactic?
- Prophylactic is pronounced /pɹɒfəˈlæktɪk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of prophylactic?
- The plural of prophylactic is prophylactics.
Words near prophylactic in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: prophylactic (page history and authors); prophylactic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prophylactic (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prophylactic (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); prophylactic (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-au-prophylactic.ogg.
Cite this entry: “prophylactic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prophylactic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.