English Explanatory Dictionary

reduce

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb

To bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower.
To lose weight.
To bring to an inferior rank; to degrade, to demote.
To humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture.
To bring to an inferior state or condition.
To be forced by circumstances (into something one considers unworthy).
To decrease the liquid content of (a food) by boiling much of its water off.
To add electrons / hydrogen or to remove oxygen.
To produce metal from ore by removing nonmetallic elements in a smelter.
To simplify an equation or formula without changing its value.
To express the solution of a problem in terms of another (known) algorithm.
To convert a syllogism to a clearer or simpler form.

Pronunciation

/ɹɪˈd͡ʒuːs/ /ɹɪˈdjuːs/ /ɹɪˈd(j)us/ En-us-reduce.ogg /ɹɪˈdjʉːs/ /ɹɪˈd͡ʒʉːs/ /ɹəˈdjʉːs/ /ɹəˈd͡ʒʉːs/

Word forms

reduce reduces reducing reduced

Etymology

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

Synonyms

cut decrease lower abase abate belittle besmall bring down embase decrement diminish foreshorten lessen lilliputianize mince minimize reduce shrink smallify disparage humble relegate sink bring down to size cut down to size debase defame degrade demean demote depress discredit disgrace dishonour downgrade give a bad name humiliate knock down to size put someone in their place slur trim down to size whittle down to size overcome surmount vanquish beat convince chew up eat someone for breakfast eat someone's lunch flog kick ass malavogue murdelize outfox outguess outrun outsmart outwit overpower

Antonyms

enlarge increase add amplify augment dilate eke / eke out elevate embiggen enhance enlargen enrich greaten grow increment largen magnify propagate raise strengthen swell up

Related words

reducible reductase reduction reductive reducing agent

Derived words

beta reduce bioreduce cytoreduce deuteroreduce photoreduce reducement reducer reduce someone to tears reducetarian reducing agent reducing flame reducing scale reducing sugar reductant rereduce

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

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