Meanings
deter1
present singular third person deters · participle present deterring · participle past deterred · past deterred
- transitiveTo prevent something from happening.
- transitiveTo persuade someone not to do something; to discourage.
Their boss deterred them from both taking holidays at the same time, claiming he couldn't manage it all on his own.
2 more examples
Such a male-dominated environment is also likely to contribute to the lingering presence of an outdated belief that expressing feelings and demonstrating emotion is a sign of weakness, deterring some men from discussing their problems.
2020 July 1, Paul Stephen, “Vital Connections”, in Rail, page 41Among the remaining contention points between the two armies is an eastern region called the Depsang Plains. Military analysts said that the Chinese Army was not allowing Indian troops to patrol in that area, even though they have done so for decades. While India’s military is already stretched thin, said Saurav Jha, editor in chief of the Delhi Defense Review, it still needs to keep up a permanent patrol to deter China.
2022 September 9, Sameer Yasir, “2 Years After Deadly Fistfights, India and China Pull Back From Border”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Sep 2022, Asia PacificSynonyms: dissuade
- transitiveTo distract someone from something.
we have in following enquiry, attempted to throw some light upon subjects, from which uncertainty has hitherto deterred the wise
1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral., London: Oxford University Press, published 1973, § 10
Deter2
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo persuade someone not to do something; to discourage.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
deter · verb
- Latindēterreō“deter, discourage”
- Englishdeter
Borrowed from Latin dēterreō (“deter, discourage”), from de (“from”) + terreō (“to frighten”).
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Deter · proper noun
- GermanDeter
- EnglishDeter
Borrowed from German Deter.
More words from German
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek ἀποτρέπω
- ἀποτρέπω (apotrépō)to persuade someone not to do something
Arabic رَدَعَ
- رَدَعَ (radaʕa)to prevent something from happening
Bulgarian възпирам, разубеждавам
- възпирам (văzpiram)to prevent something from happening
- разубеждавам (razubeždavam)to persuade someone not to do something
Chinese Mandarin 防止, 阻止
- 防止 (fángzhǐ)to prevent something from happening
- 阻止 (zǔzhǐ)to prevent something from happening
- 預防 /预防 (yùfáng)to prevent something from happening
Czech odvrátit, odradit
- odvrátitto prevent something from happening
- odraditto persuade someone not to do something
- odstrašitto persuade someone not to do something
Dutch verhinderen, ontmoedigen
- verhinderento prevent something from happening
- ontmoedigento persuade someone not to do something
Esperanto deturni, malkonvinki
- deturnito prevent something from happening
- malkonvinkito persuade someone not to do something
Finnish estää, pidätellä
- estääto prevent something from happening
- pidätelläto persuade someone not to do something
- estelläto persuade someone not to do something
French empêcher, dissuader
- empêcherto prevent something from happening
- dissuaderto persuade someone not to do something
- découragerto persuade someone not to do something
German verhindern, abwenden
- verhindernto prevent something from happening
- abwendento prevent something from happening
- unterbindento prevent something from happening
- abhaltento persuade someone not to do something
- abbringento persuade someone not to do something
- zurückhaltento persuade someone not to do something
- ablenkento distract someone from something
- beeinträchtigento distract someone from something
Hungarian elrettent
- elrettentto prevent something from happening
Icelandic hindra
- hindrato prevent something from happening
Italian prevenire, scoraggiare
- prevenireto prevent something from happening
- scoraggiareto persuade someone not to do something
Japanese 防ぐ, 阻む
- 防ぐ (fusegu)to prevent something from happening
- 阻む (habamu)to prevent something from happening
- 阻止する (soshi suru)to prevent something from happening
- 思い止まらせる (omoitodomaraseru)to persuade someone not to do something
- 抑止する (yokushi suru)to persuade someone not to do something
Lithuanian atgrasyti
- atgrasytito persuade someone not to do something
Māori kaiwaenga, whakapāhunu
- kaiwaengato prevent something from happening
- whakapāhunuto prevent something from happening
- whakapāhunuto persuade someone not to do something
- taituto persuade someone not to do something
Norwegian forhindre, avskrekke
- forhindreto prevent something from happening
- avskrekketo persuade someone not to do something
Polish zapobiegać, zapobiec
- zapobiegaćto prevent something from happening
- zapobiecto prevent something from happening
- powstrzymywaćto persuade someone not to do something
- powstrzymaćto persuade someone not to do something
- odstraszaćto distract someone from something
- odstraszyćto distract someone from something
Portuguese impedir, dissuadir
- impedirto prevent something from happening
- dissuadirto persuade someone not to do something
- desencorajarto persuade someone not to do something
Romanian împiedica, opri
- împiedicato prevent something from happening
- oprito prevent something from happening
- descurajato persuade someone not to do something
- deconsiliato persuade someone not to do something
Russian предотвраща́ть, предотврати́ть
- предотвраща́ть (predotvraščátʹ)to prevent something from happening
- предотврати́ть (predotvratítʹ)to prevent something from happening
- отгова́ривать (otgovárivatʹ)to persuade someone not to do something
- отговори́ть (otgovorítʹ)to persuade someone not to do something
- разубежда́ть (razubeždátʹ)to persuade someone not to do something
- разубеди́ть (razubedítʹ)to persuade someone not to do something
- уде́рживать (udérživatʹ)to persuade someone not to do something
- удержа́ть (uderžátʹ)to persuade someone not to do something
Slovak odvrátiť, odradiť
- odvrátiťto prevent something from happening
- odradiťto persuade someone not to do something
- odstrašiťto persuade someone not to do something
Spanish evitar, prevenir
- evitarto prevent something from happening
- prevenirto prevent something from happening
- disuadirto prevent something from happening
- disuadirto persuade someone not to do something
- desalentarto persuade someone not to do something
- deterrerto persuade someone not to do something
Swedish förhindra, avstyra
- förhindrato prevent something from happening
- avstyrato prevent something from happening
- avrådato persuade someone not to do something
- avskräckato persuade someone not to do something
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with deter
Anagrams
Cite this entry
deter. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/deter
“deter.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/deter. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “deter,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/deter.
Source: deter on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.