maintain
verb
Simple meaning
Keep in safety and protect from harm, decay, loss.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
mayntaynSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
meɪnˈteɪn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Keep in safety and protect from harm, decay, loss, or destruction
To keep up; to preserve; to uphold (a state, condition etc.).
To keep in good condition and working order.
To declare or affirm (a clause) to be true; to assert.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Keep in safety and protect from harm, decay, loss, or destruction
Used this way, maintain is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It turns up most in personal or emotional discussion and literature or storytelling contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use maintain
- “It is important to maintain your car regularly for safety.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Someone who upholds or maintains.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: keep in safety and protect from harm or decay
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.