diff --git a/cpp/src/arrow/compute/kernel.h b/cpp/src/arrow/compute/kernel.h
index 5b5b5718e19dc..1adb3e96c97c8 100644
--- a/cpp/src/arrow/compute/kernel.h
+++ b/cpp/src/arrow/compute/kernel.h
@@ -38,6 +38,12 @@
 #include "arrow/util/macros.h"
 #include "arrow/util/visibility.h"
 
+// macOS defines PREALLOCATE as a preprocessor macro in the header sys/vnode.h.
+// No other BSD seems to do so. The name is used as an identifier in MemAllocation enum.
+#if defined(__APPLE__) && defined(PREALLOCATE)
+#undef PREALLOCATE
+#endif
+
 namespace arrow {
 namespace compute {