deterrent

1. 1.

   something immaterial that interferes with or delays action or progress

   Synonymshindrancehinderanceimpedimentbalkbaulkcheckhandicap

   Broaderdifficulty

   Narroweralbatrossbinddiriment impedimentdragobstaclestraitjacket

1. 1.

   tending to deter

   “the deterrent effects of high prices”

   Similarpreventive

Other forms of deterrent

plural

deterrents·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about deterrent

What does deterrent mean?

deterrent means "something immaterial that interferes with or delays action or progress". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in deterrent?

deterrent has 3 syllables: de-ter-rent. The stress falls on "ter". In IPA it is /dɪˈtɝɹənt/.

What is another word for deterrent?

Close synonyms include hindrance, hinderance, impediment, balk, baulk. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is deterrent a common word?

deterrent is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.