protection
Pluralprotections (some meanings)
- 1The act of keeping someone or something safe from harm, or the state of being kept safe.
The agency oversees the protection of endangered species across the region.
Witness protection requires constant vigilance from federal agents.
UsageProtection from or against a danger, the protection of what is kept safe; someone under police protection is guarded.
Similardefense
Note
The phrase for protection names a purpose, as when Richard Jefferies keeps a flintlock by him in The Amateur Poacher (1879).
- 2Something that serves as a means of keeping someone or something safe.
A sturdy lock is your first protection against burglars.
Sunscreen is essential protection for anyone spending the day outdoors.
UsageA thing is protection against something, often with no a: sunscreen is good protection.
- 3A condom or other method that guards against pregnancy or sexually transmitted infection.
The nurse stressed the importance of using protection every time.
He kept protection in his wallet just in case.
UsageUsually use protection, with no a: a polite, indirect way to talk about condoms.
Similarcontraception
- 4The coverage an insurance policy provides against specified losses or risks.
The policy includes protection against fire, theft, and water damage.
Homeowners often add extra protection for valuable jewelry.
UsageA policy offers or includes protection against a loss such as fire or theft.
Similarcoverage, cover, insurance
Note
Insurance has its own use for the word: what a policy will pay for when something goes wrong. A policy's protection is defined by the perils it covers or excludes and the monetary limits it sets. The natural question is always "protection against what?" The answer might be fire, theft or water damage. In policy language it sits close to coverage, and extra protection means broader terms or a higher limit.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Named-perils policies list covered events; open-perils policies cover events unless excluded. Coverage also depends on the policy's limits and other terms. tdi.texas.gov
- 5Immunity from harm obtained by making illegal payments, such as bribes or money paid under extortion.
Local merchants paid the syndicate for protection against vandalism the syndicate itself threatened.
Refusing to buy protection, the restaurant owner soon found his windows smashed.
UsageUsually pay for protection or buy protection. A scheme demanding such payments through threats is a protection racket.
Less common meanings
- 6In economics, limits imposed on foreign competitors, such as import tariffs, to shield a country's own businesses from their competition.
The government offered protection to the steel industry through high import tariffs.
Critics argue that protection keeps prices high for ordinary consumers.
UsageGive protection to or for an industry; the policy is protectionism, and its supporters are protectionists.
Similarprotectionism
Note
Economists use the word for a policy, not a feeling of safety: tariffs, quotas or regulatory barriers that shield domestic industry from foreign rivals. Debate over it often turns on a familiar trade-off. Preserved local production and jobs sit on one side, and higher prices for ordinary consumers sit on the other.
- 7A polite term for adult incontinence wear, such as absorbent pads or undergarments.
After her surgery, she wore light bladder protection for a few weeks until the leaks stopped.
Many adults who leak a little when they laugh or sneeze rely on thin, discreet protection worn inside their underwear.
UsageOften bladder protection or adult protection; for personal products, protection alone usually suggests condoms.
Note
A rare euphemism for incontinence pads and undergarments, used in the same way as adult protection. The softness is the point, but it invites confusion with the contraceptive sense: to most hearers, buying protection at a pharmacy means condoms.
- 8A passport or similar official document guaranteeing the bearer safety from harm or interference.
Note
Here the word names a piece of paper: the written safe-conduct an authority issued so its bearer could travel free of arrest or interference, an early cousin of the modern passport. The sense is obsolete. It matters when reading older texts, where "a protection" may be something carried in a pocket. In writing about travel documents today, passport or safe-conduct does the job.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- A protection could be a written document guaranteeing its bearer freedom from harm or interference. en.wiktionary.org
- Such safe-conducts were early relatives of modern passports. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
- The document sense is obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
- Historical protections were physical documents that could be carried in a pocket. archives.gov
- 9In computing, the access restrictions set on a resource such as a file or area of memory, controlling who or what may read, change or run it.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of protection apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
Latin prōtegere ("to protect, cover in front") had the past participle prōtēctus, from which came Late Latin prōtectiō ("a covering over"); the word reached English through Old French and Middle English. In English terms it is protect plus -ion, and it took the place of the native Old English ġesċildnes.