prophylactic

adjective

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pro·phy·lac·tic | \ ˌprō-fə-ˈlak-tik

also ˌprä-

Definition of prophylactic

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : guarding from or preventing the spread or occurrence of disease or infection

2 : tending to prevent or ward off : preventive

prophylactic

noun

Definition of prophylactic (Entry 2 of 2)

: something prophylactic especially : a device and especially a condom for preventing venereal infection or conception

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Examples of prophylactic in a Sentence

Adjective the prophylactic use of antibiotics the many prophylactic measures that city officials could have taken to reduce the scope of the disaster

Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective What's more, prophylactic shots would probably require far fewer antibodies than IV treatments, Joyner said. — oregonlive, "Blood plasma shot might inoculate against coronavirus for months -- so why won’t feds test it?," 11 July 2020 In anticoagulants, there’s prophylactic doses and there’s therapeutic doses. — Lauren Caruba, ExpressNews.com, "San Antonio vascular expert explains how coronavirus, COVID-19, can cause blood clots and stroke, even in young people," 9 July 2020 There remains no effective treatment for severe COVID-19 infections, no prophylactic and no vaccine. — Joshua Austin Acklin, Scientific American, "New Yorkers Flattened the Curve, but ...," 9 July 2020 Records from the home said the cocktail was given for prophylactic use. — Washington Post, "The ‘Covid Cocktail’: Inside a Pa. nursing home that gave some veterans hydroxychloroquine even without covid-19 testing," 7 July 2020 Meanwhile, Trump has touted the benefits of taking hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic, despite public health officials saying otherwise. — Cassidy Morrison, Washington Examiner, "FDA pulls emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine, the drug touted by Trump as COVID-19 remedy," 15 June 2020 Connor’s trial examines whether hydroxychloroquine could be a prophylactic prior to exposure to the virus. — NBC News, "Hydroxychloroquine is not dead yet," 26 Mar. 2020 India's health ministry quickly approved it as a prophylactic for health care workers and others at high risk of infection, and as a treatment for critically ill patients. — Emily Schmall And Aniruddha Ghosal, The Christian Science Monitor, "Trump praises malaria drug and India ups its production," 19 May 2020 In India, the government has recommended hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic for health care workers who dose themselves as a preventive measure to avoid contracting the infection while treating Covid-19 patients. — Bhuma Shrivastava, Bloomberg.com, "Trump’s Malaria Drug Push Boon for 160-Year-Old Plantation," 10 May 2020 Recent Examples on the Web: Noun Doctors caution there is no evidence dexamethasone can prevent coronavirus infection, and should not be used as a prophylactic. — NBC News, "Common steroid found to reduce deaths in sickest COVID-19 patients, researchers say," 16 June 2020 Or in a sanitized version of blood sacrifice, small silver images of the patient were offered as a prophylactic against illness. — Tulasi Srinivas, The Conversation, "India’s goddesses of contagion provide protection in the pandemic – just don’t make them angry," 15 June 2020 The findings, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, are the first from a major clinical trial looking at whether the medication might be useful as a prophylactic. — NBC News, "George Floyd had coronavirus, autopsy says," 5 June 2020 The new study's findings cannot necessarily be extrapolated to people with mild illness at home or those, like Trump, who are taking the antimalarials as a prophylactic. — Anchorage Daily News, "Antimalarial drug touted by Trump linked to increased risk of death in coronavirus patients, study says," 22 May 2020 And the benefit-risk [ratio] is very clear versus pre-exposure prophylactics that healthy people will take, say health care workers, to prevent them from acquiring the virus. — Ed Silverman, STAT, "FDA’s Woodcock on authorizing emergency use for hydroxychloroquine: ‘We did the best we could’," 24 Apr. 2020 Regeneron plans to test its antibody study both to treat people who have Covid-19, and as a prophylactic that would prevent people from being infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. — Matthew Herper, STAT, "Regeneron says potential Covid-19 drugs could start human tests by early summer," 17 Mar. 2020 That could create a treatment or prophylactic relatively quickly. — Matthew Herper, STAT, "How blood plasma from recovered patients could help treat the new coronavirus," 5 Mar. 2020 Richard Pleass, a virologist at LSTM, says that a treatment based on these antibodies could act as a prophylactic for hospital staff, slowing the spread of flu. — Neil Savage, Scientific American, "The push for better flu therapies," 18 Sep. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'prophylactic.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

22 Jul 2020

Cite this Entry

“Prophylactic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prophylactic. Accessed 8 Aug. 2020.

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More Definitions for prophylactic

prophylactic

adjective

English Language Learners Definition of prophylactic

(Entry 1 of 2)

medical : designed to prevent disease

prophylactic

noun

English Language Learners Definition of prophylactic (Entry 2 of 2)

medical : something that is designed to prevent the spread of disease or infection

See the full definition for prophylactic in the English Language Learners Dictionary

prophylactic

adjective

pro·phy·lac·tic | \ ˌprō-fə-ˈlak-tik also ˌpräf-ə- \

Medical Definition of prophylactic

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : guarding from or preventing the spread or occurrence of disease or infection prophylactic therapy

2 : tending to prevent or ward off : preventive

prophylactic

noun

Medical Definition of prophylactic (Entry 2 of 2)

: something (as a medicinal preparation) that is prophylactic especially : a device and especially a condom for preventing venereal infection or conception

prophylactic

adjective

pro·phy·lac·tic | \ ˌprō-fə-ˈlak-tik, ˌprä-