Word.ws English Dictionary

prophylaxes

prophylaxes is the plural of prophylaxis.

Meaning of prophylaxis

Noun

prophylaxis (countable and uncountable, plural prophylaxes)

  1. The prevention of, or the protective treatment for, disease.
    • The role of statins in prophylaxis for cardiovascular disease is well supported by the medical literature.
    1. (sometimes, specifically) The cleaning of a patient's teeth.
      • We did his semiannual prophylaxis today, and his teeth and gums were found to be healthy.
    2. (sometimes, specifically) Protective measures against acquiring a sexually transmitted disease.
  2. (broadly) Action that works to prevent some bad outcome.
    • The central bankers viewed these moves as prophylaxis against inflation.
    1. (broadly) A move or strategy that frustrates an opponent's plan or tactic.

Phrases with prophylaxes

Questions about prophylaxes

What is prophylaxes the plural of?
Prophylaxes is the plural of prophylaxis.

Words near prophylaxes in the dictionary

  1. prophylactick
  2. prophylactics
  3. prophylactorium
  4. prophylax
  5. prophylaxed
  6. prophylaxes
  7. prophylaxies
  8. prophylaxis
  9. prophylaxy
  10. prophyll
  11. prophylla

Source and license

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