Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use reduce in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb

Reduce means to bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower. Example: “Formaldehyde can be reduced to form methanol.”

Examples of reduce by meaning

verbTo 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...
  • 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

verbTo bring to an inferior rank; to degrade, to demote.

  • to reduce a sergeant to the ranks

verbTo humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture.

  • to reduce a province or a fort

verbTo bring to an inferior state or condition.

  • to reduce a city to ashes

verbTo 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

verbTo 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.

verbTo add electrons / hydrogen or to remove oxygen.

  • Formaldehyde can be reduced to form methanol.

verbTo 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.

More sentences with reduce

  • Aspirin is a drug that reduces pain, acts against inflammation and lowers body temperature.From the entry drug
  • Despite the reduced price of goods at the BX, everything is of high quality.From the entry bx
  • The burn will reduce the risk of a forest fire in the fall.From the entry burn
  • The committee would like to entertain the idea of reducing the budget figures.From the entry entertain
  • Our contraction of debt in this quarter has reduced our ability to attract investors.From the entry contraction
  • When the pot comes to a boil, cover it and reduce the heat to medium.From the entry cover
  • He made a lot of enemies after reducing the working hours in his department.From the entry enemy
  • To reduce cancer risk, it is best that you neither chew nor smoke.From the entry chew
  • A portion of your mortgage payment goes to reduce the principal, and the rest covers interest.From the entry principal
  • The defendant pleaded insanity in the hope of getting a reduced sentence.From the entry insanity
  • Courts should not reduce this case to a neat set of legal rules.From the entry neat
  • We have to reduce distraction in class if we want students to achieve good results.From the entry distraction
  • If you reduce the header of this document, the body will fit onto a single page.From the entry header
  • The inexorability of global warming gave people a reason to reduce automobile use.From the entry inexorability
  • The envoy invoked the King of Kings's magnanimity to reduce his province's tribute after another drought.From the entry invoke
  • The doctor told me elevating my legs would help reduce the swelling.From the entry elevate
  • As public funding is reduced, we depend increasingly on private philanthropy.From the entry philanthropy
  • This design will reduce the chance of flutter in the parachute.From the entry flutter
  • We've worked hard to reduce work-in-progress inventory by speeding up production.From the entry work-in-progress
  • If we don't reduce the makespan of that product, the order won't be shipped on time.From the entry makespan
  • There were two scratches in race 8, which reduced the field from nine horses to seven.From the entry scratch
  • Work in progress has dramatically declined due to reduced production cycle times.From the entry work in progress
  • As we approached the runway, the pilot fishtailed slightly to reduce landing speed.From the entry fishtail
  • Many air conditioners, in addition to reducing the temperature, also dehumidify the air.From the entry dehumidify
  • The study examined the efficacy of geriatric interventions in reducing the frequency of falls among the elderly.From the entry geriatric
  • The intended purpose of antidiscrimination laws is to counteract and reduce inequity.From the entry inequity
  • Goods values increase as businesses limit their stocks in order to reduce capital tie-up.From the entry tie-up
  • To cope with these mental gymnastics we apply various ways of simplifying and reducing the information.From the entry mental gymnastics
  • The use of synthetic fuels from nonfood crops can reduce the carbon footprint.From the entry nonfood

Meaning of reduce

  1. verb To bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower.
  2. verb To lose weight.
  3. verb To bring to an inferior rank; to degrade, to demote.

Full definition of reduce

Questions about reduce in a sentence

How do you use reduce in a sentence?
Reduce is used as a verb. For example: “Formaldehyde can be reduced to form methanol.”
What is a short sentence with reduce?
“reduced to silence”
What does reduce mean?
Reduce means to bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: reduce (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use reduce in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/reduce. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.