Reduce Very Common

Reduce has 21 different meanings across 1 category:

Verb

Definitions

Verb

cut down on; make a reduction in

"reduce your daily fat intake"

"The employer wants to cut back health benefits"

reduce cut down cut back trim trim down trim back cut bring down

make less complex

"reduce a problem to a single question"

reduce

bring to humbler or weaker state or condition

"He reduced the population to slavery"

reduce

simplify the form of a mathematical equation of expression by substituting one term for another

"To solve the integral more easily, he reduced the complex trigonometric expression into a simpler algebraic form by applying known identities."

reduce

lower in grade or rank or force somebody into an undignified situation

"She reduced her niece to a servant"

reduce

be the essential element

"The proposal boils down to a compromise"

reduce come down boil down

reduce in size; reduce physically

"Hot water will shrink the sweater"

"Can you shrink this image?"

shrink reduce

lessen and make more modest

"reduce one's standard of living"

reduce

make smaller

"reduce an image"

reduce scale down

to remove oxygen from a compound, or cause to react with hydrogen or form a hydride, or to undergo an increase in the number of electrons

"The chemist added sodium borohydride to reduce the ketone into an alcohol."

deoxidize deoxidise reduce

narrow or limit

"reduce the influx of foreigners"

reduce tighten

put down by force or intimidation

"The government quashes any attempt of an uprising"

"China keeps down her dissidents very efficiently"

"The rich landowners subjugated the peasants working the land"

repress quash keep down subdue subjugate reduce

undergo meiosis

"The cells reduce"

reduce

reposition (a broken bone after surgery) back to its normal site

"The surgeon carefully reduced the fractured femur before closing the incision."

reduce

destress and thus weaken a sound when pronouncing it

"When I sing, I need to reduce certain consonants so they don't clash with the melody."

reduce

reduce in scope while retaining essential elements

"The manuscript must be shortened"

abridge foreshorten abbreviate shorten cut contract reduce

be cooked until very little liquid is left

"The sauce should reduce to one cup"

boil down reduce decoct concentrate

cook until very little liquid is left

"The cook reduced the sauce by boiling it for a long time"

reduce boil down concentrate

lessen the strength or flavor of a solution or mixture

"cut bourbon"

dilute thin thin out reduce cut

take off weight

"After joining the gym, she decided to reduce her waistline by exercising three times a week."

reduce melt off slim slenderize thin slim down

To bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower.

"The new diet plan helped reduce his daily calorie intake significantly without making him feel hungry."

In plain English: To reduce something means to make it smaller, less, or lower in amount.

"We need to reduce our spending this month to save for the new car."

Usage: Use reduce when you want to make an amount smaller by taking away part of it, such as reducing a price or reducing noise levels. This verb often pairs with nouns like cost, speed, and stress rather than abstract concepts that require synonyms like decrease or lessen.

Example Sentences

"We need to reduce our spending this month to save for the new car." verb

"I need to reduce my coffee intake because I feel too jittery." verb

"The company plans to reduce its workforce by ten percent next year." verb

"Adding salt to the soup will help reduce the bitterness of the vegetables." verb

Origin

The word reduce comes from the Latin verb redūcō, which combines "re-" meaning back and dūcō meaning to lead. It entered English through Middle French as a term for bringing something back or leading it backward.

Rhyming Words

uce puce luce duce pauce sauce bruce truce douce educe pruce peuce deuce deduce induce abduce spruce seduce almuce adduce

Compare