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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

protective.

Serving or intended to protect.

10 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/pɹəˈtɛk.tɪv/UK/pɹəˈtɛk.tɪv/Canada, US/pɹoʊˈtɛk.tɪv/Canada, US/pɹəˈtek.tɪv/Australia
  1. Serving or intended to protect.

    The fighter dropped into a protective stance.
    The castle's moat served a protective function.
  2. Wishing to protect; defensive of somebody or something.

    Mother bears are famously protective of their cubs.
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Medieval Latin prōtēctīvus. By surface analysis, protect + -ive.

noun/pɹəˈtɛk.tɪv/UK/pɹəˈtɛk.tɪv/Canada, US/pɹoʊˈtɛk.tɪv/Canada, US/pɹəˈtek.tɪv/Australia
  1. Something that protects.

    UK
  2. A condom.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Medieval Latin prōtēctīvus. By surface analysis, protect + -ive.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.