Preventative or preventive?
preventative is an adjective meaning “Alternative form of preventive”; preventive is an adjective meaning “Preventing, hindering, or acting as an obstacle to”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) preventive is about 2.3 times as common as preventative.
What is the difference between preventative and preventive?
| preventative | preventive | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | Alternative form of preventive | Preventing, hindering, or acting as an obstacle to Carried out to deter military aggression A contraceptive, especially a condom |
| Example | none recorded | A good preventive against heart disease is a healthy lifestyle |
| Pronunciation | /pɹɪˈvɛntətɪv/ | /pɹɪˈvɛntɪv/ |
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words | 3.2 times per million words |
Sources: preventative and preventive in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of preventative and preventive
preventative
- 1
Alternative form of preventive
- 2
Alternative form of preventive
preventive
- 1
Preventing, hindering, or acting as an obstacle to
- 2
datedA thing that prevents, hinders, or acts as an obstacle to
- 3
Carried out to deter military aggression
- 4
datedA thing that slows the development of an illness
A good preventive against heart disease is a healthy lifestyle
- 5
Slowing the development of an illness; prophylactic
- 6
A contraceptive, especially a condom
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, preventative or preventive?
preventative appears 1.3 times per million words; preventive 3.2 times per million words.
preventative 1.3 times per million wordspreventive 3.2 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search preventative vs preventive?
“preventative vs preventive” is searched about 14,800 times a month on Google and 390 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“preventive vs preventative”, “preventative or preventive”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.