prophylactic

1. 1.

   remedy that prevents or slows the course of an illness or disease

   “the doctor recommended several preventatives”

   Synonymspreventivepreventative

   Broaderremedy
2. 2.

   contraceptive device consisting of a sheath of thin rubber or latex that is worn over the penis during intercourse

   Synonymscondomrubbersafetysafe

   Broadercontraceptive

Other forms of prophylactic

plural

prophylactics·

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 prophylactic

What does prophylactic mean?

prophylactic means "capable of preventing conception or impregnation". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in prophylactic?

prophylactic has 4 syllables: pro-phy-lac-tic. The stress falls on "lac". In IPA it is /ˌpɹɑfɪˈlæktɪk/.

What is another word for prophylactic?

Close synonyms include contraceptive, antifertility, cautionary, preventive, preventative. 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 prophylactic a common word?

prophylactic 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.

What rhymes with prophylactic?

3 words rhyme with prophylactic. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.