Word.ws English Dictionary

reduce

/ɹɪˈd͡ʒuːs//ɹɪˈd(j)us/

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

Verb

reduce (third-person singular simple present reduces, present participle reducing, simple past and past participle reduced)

  1. (transitive) To bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower.
    • to reduce weight, speed, heat, expenses, price, personnel etc.
    • Becoming more aware of the progress that scientists have made on behavioral fronts can reduce the risk that other natural scientists will resort to mystical agential accounts when they exceed the limits of their own disciplinary training.2012 January, Stephen Ledoux, “Behaviorism at 100”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 10 Nov 2013, page 60
    Antonyms:
    enlarge, increase, add, amplify, augment, dilate, eke / eke out, elevate, embiggen, enhance
  2. (intransitive) To lose weight.
  3. (transitive) To bring to an inferior rank; to degrade, to demote.
    • to reduce a sergeant to the ranks
    • My father, the eldest son of an ancient but reduced family, left me with little.1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown...
  4. (transitive) To humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture.
    • to reduce a province or a fort
  5. (transitive) To bring to an inferior state or condition.
    • to reduce a city to ashes
  6. (transitive) To be forced by circumstances (into something one considers unworthy).
    • reduced to silence
    • The press release calls him "the hottest female impressionist in show business today." (One wonders how many more words press agents will have to come up with before they are reduced to actually saying "drag queen.")1983 December 31, “What a Drag”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 24, page 9
  7. (transitive) To decrease the liquid content of (a food) by boiling much of its water off.
    • Serve the oxtails with mustard or a sauce made by reducing the soup, if any is left, to a slightly thick sauce.2011, Edward Behr, James MacGuire, The Art of Eating Cookbook: Essential Recipes from the First 25 Years.
  8. (transitive) To add electrons / hydrogen or to remove oxygen.
    • Formaldehyde can be reduced to form methanol.
  9. (transitive) To produce metal from ore by removing nonmetallic elements in a smelter.
  10. (transitive) To simplify an equation or formula without changing its value.
  11. (transitive) To express the solution of a problem in terms of another (known) algorithm.
  12. (transitive) To convert a syllogism to a clearer or simpler form.
Show 7 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (transitive) To convert to written form. (Usage note: this verb almost always appears as “reduce to writing”.)
    • It is important that all business contracts be reduced to writing.
  2. (transitive) To perform a reduction; to restore a fracture or dislocation to the correct alignment.
  3. (transitive) To reform a line or column from (a square).
  4. (transitive) To strike off the payroll.
  5. (transitive, Scots law) To annul by legal means.
  6. (transitive) To pronounce (a sound or word) with less effort.
    • The first vowel of support is reduced to schwa by most English speakers.
  7. (obsolete, transitive) To translate (a book, document, etc.).
    • a book reduced into English

reduce meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

reduce in Hindi

to reduce, lessen
घटाना ghaṭānā, छँटना chãṭnā, काटना kāṭnā

reduce in Tamil

குறை

reduce in Marathi

कमी करणे

reduce in Urdu

سمٹنا, چھوٹا کر دینا, گھٹانا, کم کرنا
More languagesFewer languages
reduce in Bengali
কমান, হ্রাস করা, সঙ্কুচিত করা, ছাঁটাই করা
reduce in Telugu
తగ్గించండి
reduce in Malayalam
കിഴിക്കുക kiḻikkuka
reduce in Kannada
ಕಡಿಮೆ ಮಾಡು kaḍime māḍu
reduce in Punjabi
ਘਟਾਓ, ਘੱਟ ਕਰੋ, ਘੱਟ ਕਰਨਾ
reduce in Gujarati
વામવું vāmvũ
reduce in Odia
ହ୍ରାସ କରିବା, ହ୍ରାସ କରନ୍ତୁ
reduce in Nepali
घटाउनुहोस्, घटाउन
reduce in Tagalog
maliwin, magmaliw
reduce in Arabic
قَلَّلَ Qallala
reduce in Thai
ลด lót
reduce in Vietnamese
giảm, bớt, giảm bớt

Examples of reduce in a sentence

  • Most train operators have reduced services with emergency timetables, as they struggle to cope with a rapid increase in staff absences due to the Omicron variant of COVID.2022 January 12, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Emergency timetables as absences surge due to COVID”, in RAIL, number 948, page 6:
  • nothing so excellent but a man may falten upon something or other belonging to it whereby to reduce it .1671, John Tillotson, “Sermon II. The Folly of Scoffing at Religion. 2 Pet[er] III. 3.”, in The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John...
  • Having reduced their foe to misery beneath their fears.1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […]...
  • Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which she found the clergyman reduced.1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 13, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:

All 40 example sentences with reduce

Synonyms of reduce

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

10 more antonymsFewer antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of reduce

Forms of reduce

third-person singular presentreduces
present participlereducing
past participlereduced
pastreduced

Past tense of reduce: reduced

Origin of reduce

From Middle English reducen, from Old French reduire, from Latin redūcō (“reduce”); from re- (“back”) + dūcō (“lead”). See duke, and compare with redoubt.

Words formed from reduce

Words that rhyme with reduce

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about reduce

What does reduce mean?
Reduce means to bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower.
What is reduce in Hindi?
Reduce in Hindi is घटाना (ghaṭānā), छँटना (chãṭnā), काटना (kāṭnā). See Reduce meaning in Hindi.
How do you use reduce in a sentence?
Most train operators have reduced services with emergency timetables, as they struggle to cope with a rapid increase in staff absences due to the Omicron variant of COVID.
What part of speech is reduce?
Reduce is a verb.
How do you pronounce reduce?
Reduce is pronounced /ɹɪˈd͡ʒuːs/.
What is the past tense of reduce?
The past tense of reduce is reduced.

Words near reduce in the dictionary

  1. redubs
  2. reduc't
  3. reducant
  4. reducants
  5. reducatase
  6. reduce
  7. reduce someone to tears
  8. reduceable
  9. reduceableness
  10. reduced
  11. reduced algebra

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: reduce (page history and authors); काटना (Hindi) (page history and authors); reduce (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reduce (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); reduce (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reduce (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reduce (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); കിഴിക്കുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಕಡಿಮೆ ಮಾಡು (Kannada) (page history and authors); reduce (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); વામવું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); reduce (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); reduce (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-reduce.ogg.

Cite this entry: “reduce.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/reduce. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.