Is it "preventive" or "preventative" medicine?

Question

I heard it said both ways. Which is correct?

Answer 1

Hello Angela!

I thought it 'preventive' was correct. But when I checked it against Pocket Oxford Dictionary (POD) I'm amazed to note that both are correct!

1. Preventive —adj. serving to prevent, esp. disease. —n. preventive agent, measure, drug, etc.

2. Preventative adj. & n. = *preventive.

As explained in POD, preventative's adjective and Noun is preventive.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Preventative

Answer 3

Preventative is the commonly used form in today's vernacular. You are less likely to be corrected by someone by saying preventative. Both are correct. Remember, use your words so people understand them. Don't use them because one has more correct origins than the other.

Words are for communicating, not confusing people.

Answer 4

Preventative Medicine. I don't believe preventive is a word.

Answer 5

Sorry, but all those people who answered you are just wrong.

The original word is "preventive". Prevent + ive suffix. This is like abort+ive or select+ive -- verb plus "ive".

Unfortunately, people are used to words like "tentative" and "alliterative". These are not verb+ive combinations. The extra "at" was already there before the "ive" was added.

So, people have come to think that they should add "ative", not just "ive" to verbs to make adjectives.

The result is that people have turned "preventive" into "preventative". It's a klutzy word, but dictionaries have accepted it as a valid alternative.

I'd stick with "preventive", if I were you.

Answer 6

Oxford dictionary says both preventive and preventative are correct.
This answer is tentative.

Answer 7

preventative is correct.