prohibitive

adjective

pro·​hib·​i·​tive prō-ˈhi-bə-tiv 

prə-

1

: tending to prohibit or restrain

2

: tending to preclude use or purchase

prohibitive costs

3

: almost certain to perform as predicted

a prohibitive favorite

prohibitively adverb

prohibitiveness noun

Examples of prohibitive in a Sentence

the prohibitive cost of rent

Recent Examples on the Web

While Trump hailed Apple’s plans in February, his administration has continued to try and strong-arm the company into assembling iPhones in the U.S., which experts say would be cost prohibitive and take a very long time. —Kif Leswing, CNBC, 29 July 2025

But his salary demands, reportedly £10million ($13.5m) a year, could prove prohibitive for interested teams. —Anantaajith Raghuraman, New York Times, 28 July 2025

But any such deal would likely be threatened by Section 1502, effectively a prohibitive backdoor tariff on many U.S. companies trying to access the DRC’s resources. —John Berlau, Forbes.com, 1 Aug. 2025

There is an argument that TNT can attract new viewers to the sport via people who already subscribe for its football (predominantly the Champions League but also some Premier League matches), rugby union, tennis, snooker and SailGP, but for many that price will simply prove prohibitive. —Tim Spiers, New York Times, 27 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for prohibitive

• inhibitive

Kids Definition

prohibitive

adjective

pro·​hib·​i·​tive prō-ˈhib-ət-iv 

: likely to discourage use or purchase

prohibitive prices

prohibitively adverb