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prohibitive

UK/pɹəˈhɪbɪtɪv/US/pɹəˈhɪbɪtɪv/
adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,320 of 15,258leans written

Prohibitive means so high in cost that it stops people. Prohibitive prices, prohibitively expensive, a prohibitive fee.

It says the price acts as a ban without anybody banning anything, which is a useful thing to be able to say. The other sense is literal: a prohibitive rule is one that forbids.

Definitions of prohibitive

  1. 1adjectiveprohibitiveSo high in cost that it stops people.C1

    “The cost of housing in the city centre is prohibitive for most young people.”

prohibitive is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin prohibitivus comes from prohibere, to hold back, from pro plus habere, to hold.

  1. Latin

    prohibeō

  2. Medieval Latin

    prohibitīvus

  3. Middle English

    prohibitif

  4. English, today

    prohibitive

From Middle English prohibitif, prohibityve, from Medieval Latin prohibitīvus, from prohibit-, past-participle stem of Latin prohibeō. by surface analysis, prohibit + -ive.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

prohibitive in the wild

  • However, the distances from Earth to other potentially inhabited systems introduce prohibitive delays, assuming the limitations of the speed of light.

    Interstellar communication

  • British clients imported about 4000 services from 1695 until 1820, when a new prohibitive tax stopped the trade, as the British government sought to protect the domestic potteries.

    Armorial ware

  • A study published in December 2016 explained that the current low price of conventional kerosene-based jet fuel makes it cost-prohibitive for commercial airlines to use camelina-based jet fuel.

    Camelina

  • Boston was a lifelong railway enthusiast and wanted to build a miniature railway in his new garden, but the cost proved prohibitive.

    Cadeby Light Railway

  • Ten examples were built, but they only entered limited commercial service; their high cost and problems with the cooling of the aft engines proved prohibitive.

    Fokker F-32

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the prohibeō family

prohibitprohibitive

prohibitive — used about once every 20,553 pages · #13,320 · point at the bar for the others

  • prohibition