Confusable pair · C2
Prescribe or proscribe?
Prescribe means to order or recommend something: a doctor prescribes a drug, a rule prescribes a procedure. Proscribe means the opposite: to forbid or ban. The two differ by one letter and mean roughly opposite things, so context alone will not save you.
Which word, and why
- prescribe
order or lay down what must be done
To recommend a treatment, or to state officially what should happen.
prescribe antibiotics · the procedure prescribed by law · prescribed reading
- proscribeformal
forbid or ban
To prohibit something officially.
a proscribed organisation · proscribed by law
Now use it
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Item 1 of 5
The GP a two-week course and told him to rest.