this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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I’ve never received a satisfactory explanation what the difference between pro-active and active is. Like, every single example usage in the dictionary you could swap in “active” without changing the meaning.
The "pro-" is derived from Ancient Greek and means "earlier" or "prior". So, "proactive" means to become active before something (typically bad) happens. It's the opposite of "reactive", which means to become active after something (bad) happens, i.e. in response to it.
An example: To help with fighting fires, you can proactively remove flammable materials or buy fire extinguishers. But if a fire breaks out anyways, then you have to deal with it reactively, a.k.a. react to it, by then making use of the fire extinguishers.
In both cases, you become active, but one time you become active before something happens (proactive), the other time you become active after something happens (reactive).
Well, and the things you do in those situations are generally also different. Proactively, you try to prevent a catastrophe from happening and prepare remedies in case it still happens anyways. Whereas reactively, you use those remedies to condemn the damage and try to get things back into working order as quickly as possible.
So it’s exactly the same as if you’re actively working on fire prevention, as I suggested.
Yeah, it is literally just saying "active before something happens", so you can also omit the information that it's "before something happens", and therefore you do just express that you're being "active".