What does reduce mean?
Reduce means to lower the size, number, amount, intensity, or cost of something, often through deliberate action. It is widely used in discussions of finance, health, the environment, technology, and everyday planning: measures may reduce pollution, a company may reduce expenses, or a treatment may reduce pain. The verb can also mean to force people or circumstances into a particular condition, as in “reduced to silence,” although this usage can sound dramatic or old-fashioned. In mathematics, reduction means simplifying an expression or expressing a quantity in a more convenient form; in chemistry, it means causing a substance to gain electrons. Reduce is similar to lessen, decrease, cut, and lower, but it is especially common when the object is a cost, risk, quantity, impact, or harmful effect. Because it implies bringing something down to a smaller or lower level, it is useful wherever reduction, control, and efficiency are being described.
To make something smaller, less numerous, less costly, or less intense; to bring it down in size, amount, or degree.
"The council approved measures to reduce traffic in the city centre."
Usually transitive and often used with quantities, costs, risks, effects, or impacts.
To force someone or something into a particular state or condition.
"Years of neglect had reduced the building to almost nothing."
This sense is often dramatic and may be especially common in literary or historical writing.
To simplify a mathematical expression or express a quantity in a more convenient form.
"You can reduce the equation to two variables before solving it."
Common in mathematical, scientific, and technical contexts.
To cause a substance to gain electrons or undergo a reduction in chemical oxidation state.
"Copper ions are reduced to form metallic copper."
A specialized chemical sense, used especially in chemistry and electrochemistry.
From Latin reducere, literally “lead back,” reduce originally meant to bring a person or situation back to a previous place or state.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does reduce come from?
Reduce comes from Latin reducere, formed from re- “back” and ducere “to lead,” literally “lead back.” English borrowed the word in the early 16th century, initially in senses involving bringing back or reducing something to a smaller or simpler state. Its modern meaning developed alongside related verbs such as deduce, induce, seduce, and produce, which share the Latin root ducere, meaning “lead.”
Related word forms
How reduce is actually used
Reduce is common in formal, professional, and everyday contexts. It is transitive and normally takes an object: “reduce costs,” not usually “costs reduce.” In the mathematical and chemical senses, it describes bringing a quantity or substance into a simpler or more fundamental form.
Easily confused with reduce
Reduce means to make something smaller or less intense, whereas deduce means to reach a conclusion by reasoning from available facts.
Reduce is transitive and means to bring something down in size, amount, or intensity, whereas recede means to move back or become less prominent.