preempt

verb/priˈɛmpt/

Frequency rank: #19,326 of 20,003 in the WORDED list (wordfreq data)

Meaning

to take action in order to prevent something from happening; to act before someone else does.

Illustration for the English word “preempt”

Example sentence

The government decided to preempt a potential crisis by introducing new regulations early.

Synonyms & related words

More words in ranks 19,301–19,400