reduce

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

• (Received Pronunciation)
  • (yod-coalescence) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈd͡ʒuːs/
  • (no yod-coalescence) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈdjuːs/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈd(j)us/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈdjʉːs/, /ɹɪˈd͡ʒʉːs/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɹəˈdjʉːs/, /ɹəˈd͡ʒʉːs/
• Rhymes: -uːs

reduce (third-person singular simple present reduces, present participle reducing, simple past and past participle reduced)

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

   Synonyms: cut, decrease, lower; see also Thesaurus:diminish

   Antonyms: enlarge, increase; see also Thesaurus:augment

   to reduce weight, speed, heat, expenses, price, personnel etc.

   • 2012 January, Stephen Ledoux, “Behaviorism at 100”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 10 November 2013, page 60:

     Becoming more aware of the progress that scientists have made on behavioral fronts can reduce the risk that other natural scientists will resort to mystical agential accounts when they exceed the limits of their own disciplinary training.

   • 2022 January 12, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Emergency timetables as absences surge due to COVID”, in RAIL, number 948, page 6:

     Most train operators have reduced services with emergency timetables, as they struggle to cope with a rapid increase in staff absences due to the Omicron variant of COVID.

2. (intransitive) To lose weight.
3. (transitive) To bring to an inferior rank; to degrade, to demote.

   Synonyms: disparage, humble, relegate, sink; see also Thesaurus:demean

   to reduce a sergeant to the ranks

   • 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:

     My father, the eldest son of an ancient but reduced family, left me with little.

   • 1671, John Tillotson, “Sermon II. The Folly of Scoffing at Religion. 2 Pet[er] III. 3.”, in The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, Late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: […], London: […] B. Aylmer, […]; [a]nd W. Rogers, […], published 1696, →OCLC:

     nothing so excellent but a man may falten upon something or other belonging to it whereby to reduce it .

   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC:

     Having reduced their foe to misery beneath their fears.

   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 13, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:

     Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which she found the clergyman reduced.

   • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page viii:

     Neither [Jones] […] nor I (in 1966) could conceive of reducing our "science" to the ultimate absurdity of reading Finnish newspapers almost a century and a half old in order to establish "priority."

4. (transitive) To humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture.

   Synonyms: overcome, surmount, vanquish; see also Thesaurus:defeat

   to reduce a province or a fort

5. (transitive) To bring to an inferior state or condition.

   to reduce a city to ashes

6. (transitive) To be forced by circumstances (into something one considers unworthy).

   reduced to silence

   • 1983 December 31, “What a Drag”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 24, page 9:

     The press release calls him "the hottest female impressionist in show business today." (One wonders how many more words press agents will have to come up with before they are reduced to actually saying "drag queen.")

8. (transitive, cooking) To decrease the liquid content of (a food) by boiling much of its water off.

   Synonyms: inspissate; see also Thesaurus:thicken

   • 2011, Edward Behr, James MacGuire, The Art of Eating Cookbook: Essential Recipes from the First 25 Years.:

     Serve the oxtails with mustard or a sauce made by reducing the soup, if any is left, to a slightly thick sauce.

10. (transitive, chemistry) To add electrons / hydrogen or to remove oxygen.

    Formaldehyde can be reduced to form methanol.

11. (transitive, metallurgy) To produce metal from ore by removing nonmetallic elements in a smelter.
12. (transitive, mathematics) To simplify an equation or formula without changing its value.
13. (transitive, computer science) To express the solution of a problem in terms of another (known) algorithm.
14. (transitive, logic) To convert a syllogism to a clearer or simpler form.
15. (transitive, law) To convert to written form. (Usage note: this verb almost always appears as "reduce to writing".)

    It is important that all business contracts be reduced to writing.

17. (transitive, medicine) To perform a reduction; to restore a fracture or dislocation to the correct alignment.
18. (transitive, military) To reform a line or column from (a square).
19. (transitive, military) To strike off the payroll.
20. (transitive, Scots law) To annul by legal means.
21. (transitive, phonetics, phonology) To pronounce (a sound or word) with less effort.

    The first vowel of support is reduced to schwa by most English speakers.

22. (transitive, obsolete) To translate (a book, document, etc.).

    a book reduced into English

• reducing agent

• “reduce”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

reduce

1. inflection of reducir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Inherited from Latin redux (“that returns”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈrɛ.du.t͡ʃe/^[1][2]
• Rhymes: -ɛdutʃe
• Hyphenation: rè‧du‧ce

reduce m or f by sense (plural reduci)

1. returning [with da ‘from’]

reduce m or f by sense (plural reduci)

1. survivor

   Synonym: sopravvissuto

2. veteran

   Synonym: veterano

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• IPA^(key): /reˈdu.t͡ʃe/^[2]
• Rhymes: -utʃe
• Hyphenation: re‧dù‧ce

reduce

1. third-person singular present indicative of (archaic) redurre

• rèduce in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

• cudere, ducere

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [rɛˈduː.kɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [reˈduː.t͡ʃe]

redūce

1. second-person singular present active imperative of redūcō

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈrɛ.dʊ.kɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈrɛː.du.t͡ʃe]
• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈrɛ.dʊ.kɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈrɛː.du.t͡ʃe]

rĕduce

1. ablative masculine/feminine/neuter singular of rē̆dux

• редуче (reduce) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling

Borrowed from Latin reducere, French réduire, based on duce. Compare the inherited doublet arăduce.

• IPA^(key): /reˈdu.t͡ʃe/, [re̞ˈd̪u.t͡ʃe̞]
• Rhymes: -ut͡ʃe
• Hyphenation: re‧du‧ce

a reduce (third-person singular present reduce, past participle redus, third-person subjunctive reducă) 3rd conjugation

1. (transitive) to reduce, to lessen

• duce

• arăduce

• “reduce”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026

reduce

1. inflection of reducir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative