n. 1
An act of prohibiting, forbidding, disallowing, or proscribing something.
n. 2
A law prohibiting the manufacture or sale of alcohol.
n. 3
A period of time when specific socially disapproved consumables are considered controlled substances.

Related words

Word family: prohibitionist prohibit

Forms

Plural: prohibitions → proscriptions, bans, exclusions, interdictions…

Choose the right word

Prohibition, Command, Injunction or Requirement?

Prohibition is wholly negative; it is a command not to do; injunction is now oftenest so used, especially as the requirement by legal authority that certain action be suspended or refrained from, pending final legal decision.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

ban Saudi Arabia will remove the ban on women driving.
exclusion Demand the exclusion of the country from the U. N.
refusal What she wants to say just adds up to a refusal.
restraint She was angry, but she spoke with restraint.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
prohibition		falling
ban		steady
exclusion		rising
interdiction		steady
proscription		falling
refusal		falling

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

3 letters: law¹, bar¹, ban¹
4 letters: veto²
5 letters: taboo²
6 letters: denial³
7 letters: refusal³, embargo³
8 letters: forebode²
9 letters: rejection³, exclusion³, restraint², interdict³
10 letters: inhibition⁴, forbidding³, abnegation⁴
11 letters: repudiation⁵, forbiddance
12 letters: interdiction⁴, proscription³, disallowance⁴

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (veto² = 2 syllables).

In other languages

Français: prohibition
Italiano: proibizione