noun · academic

prevention

UK/prɪˈvɛnʃ(ə)n/US/prɪˈvɛnʃən/pre·VEN·tion

Band 5-6task2speaking

actions or measures taken to stop something bad (such as disease) from happening

Examples

Smoking prevention programs target teenagers in many countries.

Prevention is often cheaper than treatment.

Investment in prevention reduces long‑term healthcare costs.

Band 8 sentence

Public health policy should prioritise prevention measures, such as education and early screening, rather than relying solely on treatment.

Collocations

  • crime prevention
  • disease prevention
  • accident prevention

Word family

prevent verbpreventive / preventative adjectivepreventable adjective

Common mistakes

preventionprevention

use 'prevent' instead of 'prevention' in noun positionprevention

Say it for a higher band

5avoidance6precaution7+prevention

Synonyms

avoidance

Easily confused

precaution

They took every precaution to avoid contaminating the samples.

Related words

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In Health & Fitness

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