precaution

See also: précaution

English

Etymology

From French précaution, Latin praecautio, from praecavere, praecautum (“to guard against beforehand”); prae (“before”) + cavere (“be on one's guard”). See pre-, and caution.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹiːˈkɔːʃən/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɹiːˈkɔː.ʃən/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɹiːˈkɔ.ʃən/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /pɹiːˈkɑ.ʃən/, [pɹiːˈkɑ.ʃn̩], /pɹɪˈkɑ.ʃən/, [pɹɪˈkɑ.ʃn̩]

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Hyphenation: pre‧cau‧tion

Noun

precaution (countable and uncountable, plural precautions)

1. Previous caution or care; caution previously employed to prevent misfortune or to secure good

   his life was saved by precaution

   • July 2, 1826, John Henry Newman, The Philosophical Temper, First Enjoined by the Gospel

     The ancient philosophers treasured up their supposed discoveries with miserable precaution.

2. A measure taken beforehand to ward off evil or secure good or success; a precautionary act.

   to take precautions against risks of accident

   • 1955 December, H. A. Vallance, “The Highland Centenary—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 859:

     Despite all these precautions, however, severe storms sometimes caused drifts which brought traffic completely to a standstill.

Synonyms

• forecaution

Derived terms

• precautionary

Translations

Previous caution or care

Azerbaijani: ehtiyat (az) Bulgarian: предпазливост (bg) f (predpazlivost), внимание (bg) n (vnimanie) Chinese: Mandarin: 防範 / 防范 (zh) (fángfàn), 預防 / 预防 (zh) (yùfáng), 用心 (zh) (yòngxīn) French: précaution (fr) f German: Vorsorge (de) f Gothic: 𐌼𐌿𐌽𐍃 m (muns) Indonesian: langkah pencegahan Japanese: 予防 (ja) (よぼう, yobō), 用心 (ja) (ようじん, yōjin) Latin: provisio, provisio f, provisio f Norwegian: sikkerhetsforanstaltning Persian: احتیاط (fa) (ehtiyât) Plautdietsch: Väasecht f Russian: предосторо́жность (ru) f (predostoróžnostʹ), предусмотри́тельность (ru) f (predusmotrítelʹnostʹ) Spanish: precaución (es) f Swedish: försiktighetsåtgärd (sv) c, säkerhetsåtgärd (sv) c Turkish: önlem (tr)

A measure taken beforehand to ward off evil or secure good or success

Azerbaijani: ehtiyat (az), ehtiyat tədbiri Bulgarian: предпазна мярка f (predpazna mjarka) Dutch: voorzorg (nl), voorzorgsmaatregel (nl) Esperanto: antaŭrimedo Finnish: varotoimi, varokeino, varotoimenpide German: Vorsichtsmaßnahme (de) f Latin: provisio f Maori: whakatūpato Norwegian: Bokmål: forholdsregel (no) m, sikkerhetsforanstaltning m or f Nynorsk: forholdsregel m Persian: اقدام احتیاطی (eqdâm-e ehtiyâti) Plautdietsch: Väasecht f Russian: предосторо́жность (ru) f (predostoróžnostʹ) Spanish: precaución (es) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Italian: (please verify) precauzione (it) f

See also

• prevention

Verb

precaution (third-person singular simple present precautions, present participle precautioning, simple past and past participle precautioned)

1. (transitive) To warn or caution beforehand.
2. (transitive, rare) To take precaution against.

Translations

To warn or caution beforehand

Bulgarian: предпазвам (bg) (predpazvam) Maori: whakatūpato

To take precaution against

Bulgarian: взимам мерки (vzimam merki) Finnish: ryhtyä varotoimenpiteisiin Spanish: precaucionarse (es)

Anagrams

• preauction, unoperatic