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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

reduce.

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

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ɹɪˈd͡ʒuːs//ɹɪˈdjuːs//ɹɪˈd(j)us/Canada, General-American/ɹɪˈdjʉːs/Australia
  1. To bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower.

    transitive
    to reduce weight, speed, heat, expenses, price, personnel etc.
  2. To lose weight.

    intransitive
  3. To bring to an inferior rank; to degrade, to demote.

    transitive
    to reduce a sergeant to the ranks
  4. To humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture.

    transitive
    to reduce a province or a fort
  5. To bring to an inferior state or condition.

    transitive
    to reduce a city to ashes
  6. To be forced by circumstances (into something one considers unworthy).

    transitive
    reduced to silence
  7. To decrease the liquid content of (a food) by boiling much of its water off.

    transitive
  8. To add electrons / hydrogen or to remove oxygen.

    transitive
    Formaldehyde can be reduced to form methanol.
  9. To produce metal from ore by removing nonmetallic elements in a smelter.

    transitive
  10. To simplify an equation or formula without changing its value.

    transitive
  11. To express the solution of a problem in terms of another (known) algorithm.

    transitive
  12. To convert a syllogism to a clearer or simpler form.

    transitive
  13. To convert to written form. (Usage note: this verb almost always appears as “reduce to writing”.)

    transitive
    It is important that all business contracts be reduced to writing.
  14. To perform a reduction; to restore a fracture or dislocation to the correct alignment.

    transitive
  15. To reform a line or column from (a square).

    transitive
  16. To strike off the payroll.

    transitive
  17. To annul by legal means.

    transitive
  18. To pronounce (a sound or word) with less effort.

    transitive
    The first vowel of support is reduced to schwa by most English speakers.
  19. To translate (a book, document, etc.).

    obsolete · transitive
    a book reduced into English
Where this word comes from

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

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.