prohibit

P3R1O1H4I1B3I1T1
UK/pɹəˈhɪbɪt/UK/pɹəʊˈhɪbɪt/Canada, US/pɹoʊˈhɪbɪt/Canada, US/pɹəˈhɪbət/

verb

To forbid, disallow, or proscribe officially; to make illegal or illicit.

“I was prohibited to come.”

CommonScrabble 15

Meanings

verbprohibit (third-person singular simple present prohibits, present participle prohibiting, simple past and past participle prohibited)

present singular third person prohibits · participle present prohibiting · participle past prohibited · past prohibited

  1. transitiveTo forbid, disallow, or proscribe officially; to make illegal or illicit.

    I was prohibited to come.

    5 more examples

    The restaurant prohibits smoking on the patio.

    Crossing the border without permission is prohibited.

    In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.

    2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 6

    Like the previous rules, the new guidance doesn’t prohibit membership in an extremist organization, but officials said it makes it very difficult to participate. […] For years, the Defense Department relied on a nebulous definition of extremist activity that listed it among a wide array of prohibited behavior. […] “It’s threading a very fine needle when we’re engaging in prohibiting conduct that may be protected by the First Amendment,” said one official. “There’s always going to be this balancing that goes on.”

    2021 December 20, Oren Liebermann and Barbara Starr, “Pentagon defines prohibited behavior in effort to tackle extremism”, in CNN

    The Foreign Assistance Act bars assistance to any country that “prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance.”

    2024 April 11, Jennifer Hansler, “USAID administrator says it is ‘credible’ to assess famine is already occurring in parts of Gaza”, in CNN

    Synonyms: ban, disallow, forbid, proscribe, veto, ban, banish, bar · Antonyms: allow, authorize, permit

Synonyms & antonyms

More synonyms by meaning

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Latinprohibeō“to fend off, prevent, prohibit”
  2. Middle Englishprohibiten
  3. Englishprohibit

From Middle English prohibiten, from Latin prohibeō (“to fend off, prevent, prohibit”) (through past participle prohibitus).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Arabic مَنَعَ
  • مَنَعَ (manaʕa)to proscribe officially
Bulgarian забранявам
  • забранявам (zabranjavam)to proscribe officially
Catalan prohibir
  • prohibirto proscribe officially
Chinese Mandarin 禁止, 阻止
  • 禁止 (jìnzhǐ)to proscribe officially
  • 阻止 (zǔzhǐ)to proscribe officially
Czech zakazovat, zakázat
  • zakazovatto proscribe officially
  • zakázatto proscribe officially
Dutch verbieden
  • verbiedento proscribe officially
Esperanto malpermesi
  • malpermesito proscribe officially
Finnish kieltää
  • kieltääto proscribe officially
French interdire, prohiber
  • interdireto proscribe officially
  • prohiberto proscribe officially
German verbieten
  • verbietento proscribe officially
Greek απαγορεύω
  • απαγορεύω (apagorévo)to proscribe officially
Hungarian megtilt, tilt
  • megtiltto proscribe officially
  • tiltto proscribe officially
Indonesian melarang
  • melarangto proscribe officially
Irish urghair, coisc
  • urghairto proscribe officially
  • coiscto proscribe officially
Italian proibire, impedire
  • proibireto proscribe officially
  • impedireto proscribe officially
  • ostacolareto proscribe officially
  • vietareto proscribe officially
Japanese 禁じる, 禁止する
  • 禁じる (kinjiru)to proscribe officially
  • 禁止する (kinshi suru)to proscribe officially
Korean 금하다
  • 금하다 (geumhada)to proscribe officially
Latin prohibeō, interdīcō
  • prohibeōto proscribe officially
  • interdīcōto proscribe officially
  • vetōto proscribe officially
Latvian aizliegt
  • aizliegtto proscribe officially
Malay mengharamkan
  • mengharamkanto proscribe officially
Māori rāhui, whakamanakore
  • rāhuito proscribe officially
  • whakamanakoreto proscribe officially
Norwegian Bokmål forby
  • forbyto proscribe officially
Polish zakazywać, zakazać
  • zakazywaćto proscribe officially
  • zakazaćto proscribe officially
Portuguese proibir
  • proibirto proscribe officially
Romanian interzice
  • interziceto proscribe officially
Russian запреща́ть, запрети́ть
  • запреща́ть (zapreščátʹ)to proscribe officially
  • запрети́ть (zapretítʹ)to proscribe officially
Spanish prohibir
  • prohibirto proscribe officially
Swedish förbjuda
  • förbjudato proscribe officially
Thai ห้าม
  • ห้าม (hâam)to proscribe officially
Ukrainian забороня́ти, заборони́ти
  • забороня́ти (zaboronjáty)to proscribe officially
  • заборони́ти (zaboronýty)to proscribe officially

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with prohibit

All rhymes →
Cite this entry
APA

prohibit. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prohibit

MLA

“prohibit.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prohibit. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “prohibit,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prohibit.

Source: prohibit on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.