Permit
Permit verb - To give permission to.
Usage example: you are not permitted to swim at the town pond without a season pass
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
Common collocations
Cite this Source
Prevent and Permit. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 21, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/permit/prevent
Permit & Prevent. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/permit/prevent>.
Prevent or Permit. 2016. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/permit/prevent.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "permit" and "prevent" have occurred on timeline