Synonyms

maintain

American

[meyn-teyn] / meɪnˈteɪn /

verb (used with object)

to keep in existence or continuance; preserve; retain.

to maintain good relations with neighboring countries.

Synonyms:

keep up, continue

Antonyms:

discontinue
to keep in an appropriate condition, operation, or force; keep unimpaired.

to maintain order; to maintain public highways.

Synonyms:

keep up
to keep in a specified state, position, etc..

to maintain a correct posture; to maintain good health.
to affirm; assert; declare.

He maintained that the country was going downhill.

Synonyms:

asseverate
to support in speech or argument, as a statement or proposition.

Synonyms:

justify, vindicate, defend, uphold

Antonyms:

contradict
to keep or hold against attack.

to maintain one's ground.
to provide for the upkeep or support of; carry the expenses of.

to maintain a family.
to sustain or support.

not enough water to maintain life.

maintain British

/ meɪnˈteɪn /

verb

to continue or retain; keep in existence
to keep in proper or good condition

to maintain a building
to support a style of living

the money maintained us for a month
(takes a clause as object) to state or assert

he maintained that Talbot was wrong
to defend against contradiction; uphold

she maintained her innocence
to defend against physical attack

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Usage

What are other ways to say maintain? To maintain something is to keep it in existence, or to preserve it. How does maintain compare to the synonyms support, sustain, and uphold? Learn more on Thesaurus.com.

Synonym Usage

Maintain, assert, aver, allege, hold, state all mean to express an opinion, judgment, or position. Maintain carries the implications of both firmness and persistence in declaring or supporting a conviction: She maintained her client's innocence even in the face of damaging evidence. Assert suggests assurance, confidence, and sometimes aggressiveness in the effort to persuade others to agree with or accept one's position: He asserted again and again the government's right to control the waterway. Aver, like assert, implies confident declaration and sometimes suggests a firmly positive or peremptory tone; in legal use aver means “to allege as fact”: to aver that the evidence is incontrovertible. Allege indicates a statement without evidence to support it, and thus can imply doubt as to the validity or accuracy of an assertion: The official is alleged to have been unaware of the crime. Hold means simply to have or express a conviction or belief: We hold these truths to be self-evident; She held that her rights had been violated. State usually suggests a declaration that is forthright and unambiguous: He stated his reasons in clear, simple language.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of maintain

First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English mainteinen from Old French maintenir, ultimately from Medieval Latin manūtenēre, Latin manū tenēre literally, “to hold in hand,” equivalent to manū, ablative of manus “hand” + tenēre “to hold”; see manual, tenet

Explanation

Maintain means to keep the same––keep steady, keep up, or keep going. Sure, you can ride your bike super fast on a flat surface, but it can be hard to maintain that speed, or keep the same speed, going up a hill. When you maintain a strict study schedule, you stick to it. When you maintain your car in good working order, you take good care of it. If you maintain records of your business activity, it means you make notes of your sales and expenses. If a teacher maintains order in the classroom, she never lets disruptions get out of hand. If you maintain your family, you keep them in food, shelter and clothing. If you maintain that eating animals is cruel, you keep that position.

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

maintain maintains maintained maintaining

Scientists also want to determine how long the biological changes last and whether repeating the interventions can strengthen or maintain them over time.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 9, 2026

The cost stems from the need to maintain the cooling systems, to fix them when they break—and to design fields of batteries so the damage is limited in the event of a catastrophic failure.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

The aim is to manage relations between countries over the long term to maintain stability and predictability; it’s not a “winner take all” proposition.

From Salon ● Aug. 7, 2026

Norfolk Police said "significant police resources" were deployed to Thetford on Wednesday to maintain public safety, after a large group gathered on Clover Way.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

The Jefferson style was to evade, maintain pretenses, then convince himself that all was well.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

Suno, founded in 2022, has established itself as a leader in AI music tech and maintains an office in Venice.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026

The Gavi global vaccine alliance maintains a stockpile of 500,000 Ervebo doses.

From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026

Svitlana maintains a brave smile throughout our conversation, but her distress is painfully obvious.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

Only about 1 in 5 maintains a real-time inventory of the agents it is running.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

“I just have so much more energy if I stay off wheat,” she maintains.

From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri

White feels this corner of England that he lives is not as well maintained and says people don't feel like they get back the tax they pay in.

From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026

The Journal identified 52 instruments across 79 rating actions where Egan-Jones and at least one other firm maintained an active credit rating.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Seoul has strengthened surveillance and maintained readiness for possible additional launches while sharing information with its security allies the United States and Japan, the JCS said.

From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026

“We turn away from such evil at our own peril,” Kennedy maintained.

From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026

“The Cogswell and Morris Reservoirs are gone—but the lake behind the San Gabriel Dam is maintained for firefighting aircraft. I’m sure of it.”

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

Nomura cuts the stock’s target price by 9% to 41,000 won while maintaining its neutral rating.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

This produced solid, recyclable photocatalysts that could continuously synthesize H2O2 under natural sunlight while maintaining stable performance.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026

The characters share a fierce drive to fight for what they believe is right, which, for Carol, means maintaining her autonomy and resisting the good-vibes group contentment of the Others.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

"These assurances included a range of commitments on future investment in the UK, maintaining the distinct editorial identities of key services and the editorial independence of news," she said in a statement.

From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026

The more I listened, the more Schiem’s accent faded into the back of my awareness and I didn’t need to concentrate so much on maintaining my own.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023