prophylaxis

English

Etymology

From Latin, from Ancient Greek πρό (pró, “before”) + φύλαξις (phúlaxis, “a watching, guarding”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹɔfɪˈlæksɪs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æksɪs

Noun

prophylaxis (countable and uncountable, plural prophylaxes)

1. (medicine) Prevention of, or protective treatment for, disease.
2. (chess) A move or strategy that frustrates an opponent's plan or tactic.

Derived terms

• chemoprophylaxis
• fluoroprophylaxis
• homeoprophylaxis
• immunoprophylaxis
• monoprophylaxis
• pharmacoprophylaxis
• post-exposure prophylaxis
• pre-exposure prophylaxis
• propho
• prophylactic
• psychoprophylaxis
• seroprophylaxis
• thromboprophylaxis
• zooprophylaxis

Translations

prevention of, or protective treatment for disease

• Arabic: وِقَايَة f (wiqāya)
• Armenian: պրոֆիլակտիկա (hy) (profilaktika), կանխարգելում (hy) (kanxargelum)
• Belarusian: прафіла́ктыка f (prafiláktyka)
• Bulgarian: профилактика f (profilaktika)
• Catalan: profilaxi f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 預防 / 预防 (zh) (yùfáng)

• Finnish: ehkäisy (fi) (prevention); ehkäisyhoito (treatment)
• French: prophylaxie (fr) f
• German: Prophylaxe (de) f, Vorbeugung (de) f
• Hungarian: megelőzés (hu), kórmegelőzés, profilaxis (hu), (treatment) megelőző kezelés
• Irish: urchoscacht f
• Italian: profilassi (it) f
• Japanese: 予防 (ja) (よぼう, yobō)
• Kazakh: алдын алу (aldyn alu)
• Polish: profilaktyka (pl) f
• Portuguese: profilaxia (pt) f
• Russian: профила́ктика (ru) f (profiláktika)
• Sicilian: prufilassi f
• Spanish: profilaxis (es) f
• Swedish: profylax (sv)
• Ukrainian: профіла́ктика f (profiláktyka)
• Walloon: espaitchance (wa) f (neologism)

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “prophylaxis”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.