Merriam-Webster Logo
SINCE 1828
Menu
dictionary thesaurus

Thesaurus

reduce

verb

Synonyms and Antonyms of reduce

1 to bring to a lower grade or rank
  • was reduced from team captain to team member as punishment for his misbehavior on the court
Synonyms of reduce

break, bust, degrade, demote, disrate, downgrade
Words Related to reduce

can, cashier, dismiss, downsize, fire, lay off, sack

abase, debase, demean, humble, humiliate, lower
Near Antonyms of reduce

hire
Antonyms of reduce

advance, elevate, promote, raise
2 to make smaller in amount, volume, or extent
  • youʼll have to reduce the amount of money you spend on unnecessary purchases if you want to have any money left for retirement
Synonyms of reduce

abate, de-escalate, decrease, dent, deplete, diminish, downscale, downsize, drop, dwindle, ease, knock down, lessen, lower
Words Related to reduce

compress, condense, constrict, contract

abbreviate, abridge, clip, crop, curtail, cut, cut back, cut down, dock, nick, pare, prune, retrench, shorten, slash, trim, truncate, whittle

deflate, shrink

minimize

moderate, modify, modulate, qualify
Near Antonyms of reduce

blow up, dilate, distend, inflate, swell

elongate, extend, lengthen, prolong, protract

add (to), complement, supplement

enhance, heighten, intensify

redouble
Antonyms of reduce

aggrandize, amplify, augment, boost, enlarge, escalate, expand, increase, raise
3 to diminish the price or value of
  • a mortgage crisis that reduced homes to their lowest level in a decade
Synonyms of reduce

attenuate, break, cheapen, depreciate, depress, devaluate, devalue, downgrade, lower, mark down, sink, write down, write off
Words Related to reduce

debase, demonetize

underestimate, underprice, underrate, undervalue

abridge, compress, contract, de-escalate, deflate, downsize, dwindle, lessen, moderate, shrink
Near Antonyms of reduce

bloat, blow up, inflate

overestimate, overprice, overrate, overvalue

add, aggrandize, amplify, augment, balloon, boost, compound, dilate, enlarge, escalate, expand, extend, heighten, increase, maximize, multiply, raise, swell, up
Antonyms of reduce

appreciate, enhance, mark up, upgrade

Synonym Discussion of reduce

decrease, lessen, diminish, reduce, abate, dwindle mean to grow or make less. decrease suggests a progressive decline in size, amount, numbers, or intensity.
    • slowly decreased the amount of pressure
lessen suggests a decline in amount rather than in number.
    • has been unable to lessen her debt
diminish emphasizes a perceptible loss and implies its subtraction from a total.
    • his visual acuity has diminished
reduce implies a bringing down or lowering.
    • you must reduce your caloric intake
abate implies a reducing of something excessive or oppressive in force or amount.
    • the storm abated
dwindle implies progressive lessening and is applied to things growing visibly smaller.
    • their provisions dwindled slowly

Learn More about reduce

  1. Dictionary: Definition of reduce Medical Dictionary: Definition of reduce Spanish Central: Translation of reduce Nglish: Translation of reduce for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of reduce for Arabic speakers

Seen and Heard

What made you want to look up reduce? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).

show comments hide comments

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

WORD OF THE DAY

parabolic

Listen to the pronounciation of parabolic

of or relating to a parable or parabola

Get Word of the Day daily email!

TRENDING NOW

  1. crawdad New novel makes waves

  2. non sequitur, sequitur Manafort judge addresses defense

  3. trope AOC tweets against border wall

SEE ALL

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Words at Play

Ask the Editors

Word Games