maintenance
/ˈmeɪnt(ə)nəns/
maintenance noun: actions performed to keep some machine or system functioning or in service. Also the ellipsis of maintenance medicine.
Noun
maintenance (usually uncountable, plural maintenances)
- Actions performed to keep some machine or system functioning or in service.
- They are all preventable by proper maintenance, but non-safety critical maintenance has to be evaluated, so failures are an accepted penalty for keeping maintenance costs down.2019 October, Ian Walmsley, “Cleaning up”, in Modern Railways, page 42
- A tort and (in some jurisdictions) an offence committed when a third party who does not have a bona fide interest in a lawsuit provides help or acquires an interest to a litigant's lawsuit.
- Alimony, a periodical payment or a lump sum made or ordered to be made to a spouse after a divorce.
- Child support.
- Money required or spent to provide for the needs of a person or a family.
- From Pond to Pond he roamed, from moor to moor; / Housing, with God's good help, by choice or chance: / And in this way he gained an honest maintenance.1815 [1802], William Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence
- The natural process which keeps an organism alive.
- Software updates that fix bugs and improve stability rather than adding new features.
- a maintenance release; a maintenance version
Also used as
maintenance is also the ellipsis of maintenance medicine.
maintenance meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali
maintenance in Hindi
- keeping a machine or system in service — see also care
- रख-रखाव rakh-rakhāv
maintenance in Tamil
- பராமரிப்பு, பராமரித்தல்
maintenance in Marathi
- keeping a machine or system in service — see also care
- डागडुजी ḍāgḍujī, देखरेख dekhrekh
maintenance in Bengali
- রক্ষণাবেক্ষণ
More languagesFewer languages
- maintenance in Malayalam
- പരിപാലനം paripālanaṁ
- maintenance in Punjabi
- ਰੱਖ-ਰਖਾਅ, ਸਾਂਭ-ਸੰਭਾਲ, ਰੱਖ ਰਖਾਅ
- maintenance in Gujarati
- જાળવણી
- maintenance in Odia
- ରକ୍ଷଣାବେକ୍ଷଣ
- maintenance in Nepali
- मर्मत सम्भार, रखरखाव, मर्मतसम्भार
- maintenance in Tagalog
- panataman
- maintenance in Arabic
- صِيَانَة ṣiyāna
- maintenance in Malay
- penyenggaraan
- maintenance in Indonesian
- perawatan, pemeliharaan
- maintenance in Thai
- การบำรุงรักษา
- maintenance in Vietnamese
- bảo trì, bảo dưỡng
Examples of maintenance in a sentence
- My grandfather worked in a mill. He operated machinery, did maintenance, and drove forklifts.
- (obligation): The renter shall be responsible for maintenance of the vehicle.
- Proper maintenance of your cutlery will keep the blades from dulling.
Forms of maintenance
| plural | maintenances |
|---|
Origin of maintenance
From Middle English mayntenaunce, from Old French maintenance, from maintenir, from Latin manus tenēre (“to hold in the hand”). By surface analysis, maintain + -ance. Note that maintain has undergone a sound and spelling change, hence is spelt with -tain-, rather than the -ten- still found in maintenance.
Words formed from maintenance
- automaintenance
- cap of maintenance
- data maintenance
- facilities maintenance
- facility maintenance
- health maintenance organization
- high-maintenance
- low-maintenance
- maintenance-free
- maintenance hole
- maintenance margin
- maintenance medicine
- maintenance window
- nonmaintenance
- percussive maintenance
- postmaintenance
- premaintenance
- preventative maintenance
- separate maintenance
- telemaintenance
- undermaintenance
Phrases with maintenance
Questions about maintenance
- What does maintenance mean?
- Maintenance means actions performed to keep some machine or system functioning or in service.
- What is maintenance in Hindi?
- Maintenance in Hindi is रख-रखाव (rakh-rakhāv). See Maintenance meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is maintenance?
- Maintenance is a noun.
- How do you pronounce maintenance?
- Maintenance is pronounced /ˈmeɪnt(ə)nəns/.
- What is the plural of maintenance?
- The plural of maintenance is maintenances.
Words near maintenance in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: maintenance (page history and authors); maintenance (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); maintenance (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); maintenance (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); maintenance (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); maintenance (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); maintenance (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-maintenance.ogg.
Cite this entry: “maintenance.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/maintenance. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.