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Preempt vs Obviate - What's the difference?

preempt | obviate |

As verbs the difference between preempt and obviate

is that preempt is (nonstandard) while obviate is to bypass a requirement or make it unnecessary; to avoid a future problem or difficult situation.

preempt

English

Alternative forms

* pre-empt *

Verb

(en verb)
  • to appropriate something (before someone else does)
  • to displace something, or take precedence over something
  • (bridge) to make a preemptive bid at bridge

    • Derived terms

    * preemptive * preemptor * preemptory

    Anagrams

    * English words with vowel pseudo-digraphs

    obviate

    English

    Verb

    (obviat)
  • To bypass a requirement or make it unnecessary; to avoid a future problem or difficult situation.
    • They saved enough money for their purchase and obviated the need to borrow.
  • * 1826', Richard Reece, ''A Practical Dissertation on the Means of '''Obviating & Treating the Varieties of Costiveness , page 181:
    • A mild dose of a warm active aperient to obviate costiveness, or to produce two motions daily, is generally very beneficial.
  • * 2004 , David J. Anderson, Agile Management for Software Engineering , page 180:
    • Some change requests, rather than extend the scope, obviate some of the existing scope of a project.
  • * 2008 , William S. Kroger, Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis: In Medicine, Dentistry, and Psychology , page 163:
    • Thus, to obviate resistance, the discussion should be relevant to the patient?s problems.