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preserve

verb · noun

Simple meaning

Keep in safety and protect from harm, decay, loss.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

pruhzurv

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

pɹəˈzɝv

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. Keep in safety and protect from harm, decay, loss, or destruction

  2. Keep or maintain in unaltered condition; cause to remain or last

  3. Maintain in safety from injury, harm, or danger

  4. To maintain throughout; to keep intact.

  5. To save from decay by the use of some preservative substance, such as sugar or salt; to season and prepare (fruits, meat, etc.) for storage.

noun

  1. A sweet spread made of any of a variety of fruits.

  2. An exclusive area of activity.

  3. A reservation, a nature preserve.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
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, preserve 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 preserve

  • “Medicine is no longer a male preserve.”noun
  • “Preserve the peace in the family.”verb
  • “Preserve the forest and the lakes.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

preserve ordergod preserve

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • preservesnounPlural form

    Fruit preserved by cooking with sugar.

  • preservedadjectiveInflected form

    Prevented from decaying or spoiling and prepared for future use.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • preservationnounDerived noun

    The activity of protecting something from loss or danger.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • life preservernounCompound term

    Rescue equipment consisting of a buoyant belt or jacket to keep a person from drowning.

  • shooting preservenounCompound term

    A preserve on which hunting is permitted during certain months of the year.

  • strawberry preservesnounCompound term

    Made with strawberries.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: sweet spread made of any of a variety of fruits

save

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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.