proactive
serving to prepare for, intervene in, or control an expected occurrence or situation, especially a negative or challenging one; anticipatory: The new guidelines will help industry employers develop proactive measures to keep their workplaces safe.
Origin of proactive
1Other words from proactive
- pro·ac·tive, noun
- pro·ac·tiv·i·ty [proh-ak-tiv-i-tee], /ˌproʊ ækˈtɪv ɪ ti/, pro·ac·tive·ness, noun
- pro·ac·tive·ly, adverb
Words that may be confused with proactive
- proactive , reactionary, reactive
Words Nearby proactive
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use proactive in a sentence
Investigators have moved from being perpetually on the back foot to being more proactive, with the result that many exchanges have responded with new rules and controls that simply did not exist before.
North Korean hackers steal billions in cryptocurrency. How do they turn it into real cash? | Patrick O'Neill | September 10, 2020 | MIT Technology ReviewTake a bank like M&T — they say they are being proactive, but from the outside, you really have no idea.
I don’t have the same implicit sense of how my team and colleagues are doing, so I need to be more proactive to check in.
How this year’s 40 Under 40 are surviving the pandemic | jonathanvanian2015 | September 7, 2020 | FortuneIt has a lot to do with very specific, proactive efforts taken by the generation of women above me who launched the Women in Topology network.
Conducting the Mathematical Orchestra From the Middle | Rachel Crowell | September 2, 2020 | Quanta MagazineTo do that, employers and hiring managers need to look at who is in their networks — if everyone looks like or acts like them, they need to take proactive steps to expand their reach.
Deep Dive: How companies and their employees are facing the future of work | Digiday | September 1, 2020 | Digiday
These are reactive, not proactive, stances, and they do little to offer substantive solutions.
There seems to be a proactive disregard for knowing or caring about their lives and plight.
Without a dedicated and proactive rescue force, campaigners fear, the death toll in the Mediterranean will skyrocket.
Britain’s Let-Em-All-Die Policy | Nico Hines, Barbie Latza Nadeau | November 1, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTJust as there are clear upsides to these types of proactive efforts in the corporate sector, there are downsides to not doing so.
The reality is something less proactive than reactive, not an initiative but a condition—a matter of identity.
America Is Coming to Terms with Its Racial Past—Let’s Look Ahead Instead | John McWhorter | May 22, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTSo one cannot say that law, as opposed to politics, is not proactive.
The Civilization of Illiteracy | Mihai Nadin
British Dictionary definitions for proactive
/ (prəʊˈæktɪv) /
tending to initiate change rather than reacting to events
psychol of or denoting a mental process that affects a subsequent process
Origin of proactive
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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