Avoid
Prevent
Prevent verb - To keep from happening by taking action in advance.
Usage example: a lot of problems would have been prevented if we'd just prepared better
Avoid is a synonym for prevent in stop topic. Sometimes you can use "Avoid" instead a verb "Prevent", if it concerns topics such as avert, keep from happening or continuing.
Mutual synonyms
Common collocations
Both words in one sentence
- Interestingly enough in Billy Bat, the titular character, a literal Alien Space Bat, intends to prevent or avoid his world from diverging from our history when it's within his power.
Source: Alien Space Bats - Because there is no drama in being too smart or prepared to either avoid or prevent most nasty situations or having already intricately planned for every contingency.
Source: Rule of Drama -
Nine hundred years later, he's a priest of the Vatican and tries to avoid and prevent killing whenever he can, and is wracked by guilt for his sins.
Source: The Atoner
Cite this Source
Prevent and Avoid. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 14, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/avoid/prevent
Avoid & Prevent. N.p., 2016. Web. 14 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/avoid/prevent>.
Prevent or Avoid. 2016. Accessed August 14, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/avoid/prevent.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "avoid" and "prevent" have occurred on timeline