Reduce

How to spell reduce

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce reduce

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reduce mean?

1. verbTo make something smaller or less in amount, size, degree, or extent.

Reduce in a sentence

• The new policy aims to reduce waste across the whole office.

• Switching suppliers helped the firm reduce its monthly costs.

Where does reduce come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin reducere, which literally meant 'to lead back' or 'to bring back', formed from the prefix re- meaning 'back' and the verb ducere meaning 'to lead'. When it first arrived in English in the late 1300s through Old French, it carried that older literal sense of bringing or leading something back to a place or condition, which is why early texts spoke of reducing rebels to obedience. Over the following centuries the meaning narrowed toward the idea of bringing something down to a smaller amount, size, or degree, and that is the sense we use today. The same ducere root sits inside a whole family of everyday words, including 'produce', 'introduce', 'conduct', and 'duke', all of which involve some form of leading. Recognising that hidden -duce ending, shared across that family, is the key to spelling reduce confidently rather than reaching for a stray 'ce' elsewhere.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• duce (from Latin ducere: to lead)