Spell Bee Word: Prevent

What does prevent mean?

Word: Prevent

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: Prevent means to stop something from happening, such as washing your hands to keep illness away.

Synonyms: stop, avoid, block

Antonyms: permit

How do you spell prevent?

Syllables: pre - vent

Tricky part: Children who say the word quickly often swap the two letters after the p. The r comes straight after the p.

Watch out for: pervent, prevnt, prevend

Memory tip: Prevent starts with p and r side by side, just as protect does, and to protect someone is often to prevent harm.

Prevent in a sentence

Example 1: A raincoat can prevent your uniform from getting wet.

Example 2: Close the lid to prevent flies from sitting on the food.

Example 3: The teacher stood at the gate to prevent pushing.

Fun Fact

Prevent first meant to come before. It grew from two Latin words meaning before and to come.

Practise the CREST Way

Word Connection

Choose the antonym of the word:

prevent

a) forbid
b) delay
c) halt
d) allow

Word Cookie

Insert the correct pair of letters to form a word:

pr_v_nt

a) a, e
b) i, e
c) e, e
d) e, a

Mingle-Mangle

Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:

tnverpe

a) prenvet
b) prevent
c) prevnet
d) prevetn

Spell-o-Spell

Choose the incorrectly spelt word:

a) progres
b) promise
c) prevent
d) protect

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Seat belts in a car are worn to prevent ____.

a) injuries
b) noise
c) traffic
d) delays

2. If you prevent a mistake, the mistake ____.

a) never happens
b) happens again
c) gets worse
d) ends quickly