Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of, relating to, or characteristic of preemption.
- adj. Having or granted by the right of preemption.
- adj. Relating to or constituting a military strike made so as to gain the advantage when an enemy strike is believed to be imminent: a preemptive nuclear attack.
- adj. Undertaken or initiated to deter or prevent an anticipated, usually unpleasant situation or occurrence: The two companies organized a preemptive alliance against a possible takeover by another firm.
- adj. Having or marked by the power to preempt or take precedence: a preemptive business offer; preemptive authority.
- adj. Games Relating to or being a bid in bridge at a high level that is intended to interfere with the opponents' bidding.
Wiktionary
- adj. Of or relating to preemption.
- adj. Made so as to deter an anticipated unpleasant situation.
- adj. bridge Intended to interfere with an opponent's bidding.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. designed or having the power to deter or prevent an anticipated situation or occurrence
Etymologies
- preempt + -ive. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The term preemptive gets bantered around a lot on thie subject of this war but preventive is more accurate, although its sounds a lot less P(ublic)R(elations)-correct.”
“No. I actually -- I have some celebrities who do what I call a preemptive strike like one time Alec Baldwin came up to me and whispered in my ear, I think you're hilarious.”
“Preventive war has been described as an important element of the Bush Doctrine, although the U.S. government read bushco doublespeak uses the term preemptive in a way which is partly consistent with international usage…”
“We both now practice what we call preemptive oversight.”
“The French destroyed the country's Air Force in what it called a preemptive strike after an attack killed nine French troops over the weekend.”
“MILLER: Well, I think that this is part of a gradual shift that we have seen in the administration towards what we call a preemptive doctrine.”
“There was the removal of the U.N. Troops, the closure of the Straits of Tiran, and then the Israelis attacked in what they call a preemptive move.”
“Strategic Command charged with, among other things, ensuring that we dominate the heavens, and the newest of all the “geographic” commands, CYBERCOM, expected to be fully operational later this fall with “1,000 elite military hackers and spies under one four-star general” prepared to engage in preemptive war in cyberspace.”
“Most of the activists were arrested over the weekend in preemptive house raids.”
“In a way, ventures into Afghanistan and the current Iraq "fiasco," plus countless covert or proxy moves worldwide, translate into a long-term preemptive strategy that future presidents will use to full advantage.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘preemptive’.
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lost in translation
As a native Spanish speaker, I always found it easy to find words that were missing in the English language that conveyed the precise meaning I cared for in Spanish. In undertaking a writing projec...
surreptitious, elusive, nondescript, demeanor, mannerisms, nonsensical, numb, obfuscate, pervaded, preemptive, stagnate, resilient and 5 more...
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DAY4_01/07/2013
miserly, frugal, prevaricate, variance, histrionic, demur, demure, beatific, perfunctory, preemptive, peremptory, indigent and 16 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
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magoosh1
aberration, aboveboard, abysmal, ace, affable, aghast, alacrity, ambiguous, ambivalent, ameliorate, amenable, amiable and 222 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
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My Revised GRE Preparation List
Words from the new GRE : This list consists mostly of words from the book Magoosh-GRE-vocab-ebook, which is one of the best vocab materials available, especially if you have started preparing one ...
alacrity, prosaic, veracity, paucity, contrite, trite, maintain, laconic, pugnacious, disparate, egregious, innocuous and 533 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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chibiryuu's Words
sugary, amalgam, zaftig, incommensurability, isomorphism, fold, awesome, cute, hack, dichotomy, pyrrhic, bifurcate and 89 more...
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My GRE word list
polemic, ad hominem, fallacious, comity, paucity, contrite, prosaic, veracious, laconic, pugnacious, alacrity, gregarious and 176 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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NakedFringe's Words
masticate, chamber, orchid, mandolin, yellow, pomegranate, conundrum, paradox, gyrate, calamitous, opalescent, cacophony and 533 more...
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vinyl's Words
deliverator, finna, metric fuckton, fag, hyphy, ginormous, sacrilicious, fantabulous, macaca, n-word, pterodactyl, genious and 560 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL P
pacifistic, pacify, palatable, palaver, palliate, pallid, palpable, pamper, panacea, pandemic, pandemonium, panegyric and 209 more...
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My List
A list of words that I have generated over time.
cairn, cacodaemoniacal, abash, abject, abjure, abstemious, abhor, abnegate, abnegation, abscond, abstruse, acclivity and 702 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for preemptive.
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