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Preventive vs Comprehensive - What's the difference?

preventive | comprehensive |

As adjectives the difference between preventive and comprehensive

is that preventive is preventing, hindering, or acting as an obstacle to while comprehensive is broadly or completely covering; including a large proportion of something.

As nouns the difference between preventive and comprehensive

is that preventive is a thing that prevents, hinders, or acts as an obstacle to while comprehensive is a comprehensive school.

preventive

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Preventing, hindering, or acting as an obstacle to.
  • Carried out to deter military aggression.
  • Slowing the development of an illness; prophylactic.
  • * Sir Thomas Browne
    • Physic is either curative or preventive .
  • (obsolete) Going before; preceding.
  • * Cudworth
    • Any previous counsel or preventive understanding.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (dated) A thing that prevents, hinders, or acts as an obstacle to.
  • * 1856 , Henry William Herbert, The Complete Manual for Young Sportsmen
    • Dogs should be warmly but airily housed; heartily, but not heatingly, fed — old Indian meal, mixed with oatmeal, suppawn, is the best general food, with a small quantity of salt, which is a preventive against worms
  • (nonstandard) A thing that slows the development of an illness.
  • A contraceptive, especially a condom.

    • Alternative forms

    * preventative

    Usage notes

    * Many speakers prefer to use preventive'' in adjective senses and ''preventative in noun senses.[http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/nonerrors.html
  • preventive]
    • ----

    comprehensive

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Broadly]] or completely covering; [[include, including a large proportion of something.

    • Synonyms

    * (broadly or completely covering) exhaustive, thorough, all-encompassing

    Derived terms

    * comprehensively * comprehensivization * comprehensivize

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (British) A comprehensive school.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Peter Wilby)
    • , volume=189, issue=6, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Finland spreads word on schools , passage=Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.}} ----