remain
Americanverb (used without object)
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remains,
present (3rd person singular)
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remained,
past participle, past
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remaining
present participle
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to continue in the same state; continue to be as specified.
to remain at peace.
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to stay behind or in the same place.
to remain at home;
I'll remain here when you go to the airport.
- Antonyms:
- depart
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to be left after the removal, loss, destruction, etc., of all else.
The front wall is all that remains of the fort.
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to be left to be done, told, shown, etc..
Only the dishwashing remains.
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to be reserved or in store.
noun
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Usually remains. something that remains or is left.
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remains,
-
miscellaneous, fragmentary, or other writings still unpublished at the time of an author's death.
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traces of some quality, condition, etc.
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a dead body; corpse.
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parts or substances remaining from animal or plant life that occur in the earth's crust or strata.
fossil remains;
organic remains.
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verb
-
to stay behind or in the same place
to remain at home
only Tom remained
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(copula) to continue to be
to remain cheerful
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to be left, as after use, consumption, the passage of time, etc
a little wine still remained in the bottle
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to be left to be done, said, etc
it remains to be pointed out
Synonym Usage
See continue.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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remainsimple
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remainssimple
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have remainedperfect
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has remainedperfect
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am remainingprogressive
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are remainingprogressive
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is remainingprogressive
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have been remainingperfect progressive
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has been remainingperfect progressive
Past
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remainedsimple
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had remainedperfect
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was remainingprogressive
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were remainingprogressive
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had been remainingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of remain
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English remainen, from Anglo-French remain-, stressed stem of Middle French remanoir, from Latin remanēre, equivalent to re- re- + manēre “to stay”; see manor
Explanation
To remain is to stay in the same place or situation. You can remain at home instead of going out to the movies with your friends, but that doesn't mean you won't remain friends. If things remain the same, they don't change, and if your family remains in the same town, they don't move. When something is left behind, it also remains: "All that remains of my party is a bunch of deflated balloons." In the fifteenth century, remain was a noun too, meaning "people or things left over or surviving." Today we use remainder instead.
Vocabulary lists containing remain
"The Earth Under Sky Bear's Feet"
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Workshop 4, Part 2
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Workshop 3, Part 2
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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:
It will however remain dry for most of the UK over the weekend, stretching out the run of days where there has been no notable rain in southern England for two months.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
Roosevelt’s two lessons remain useful 120 years later.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
The US Navy did not immediately provide answers to questions from AFP, but US Central Command posted on X that the crew "remain resilient and resolved after more than 260 days at sea."
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
But I respected it anyway for insisting on these jokers’ right to remain an unapologetic mess.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
For more than a decade, Elisha Kent Kane had managed to remain one of Philadelphia’s most eligible bachelors.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
It’s unclear whether the remains belong to a man or woman, authorities said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
Little is publicly known about the three-year relationship between Clark and Schmidt, who remains married to another woman.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
While the business of cosmetically modified, futuristic-looking pets remains in its infancy, animal rights groups worry that eventually the creatures will be created, sold and later discarded in crowded municipal shelters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
Infleqtion says it remains on track to deliver a ‘utility-scale’ quantum computer later this year.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
I drew a symbol for myself with the mountain in the background, and in the foreground were the remains of Ernest B. Lawson Elementary School.
From "Ida B" by Katherine Hannigan
But a tarp has remained over the facade since that time, sparking questions about the actual changes.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
What exactly that would mean, however, remained unclear.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
New York futures were down 0.8% to $4,433.80 a troy ounce, though they remained 3% higher on the week.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
But La Liga side Malaga were expecting a penalty shootout to follow, and remained on the pitch ready to decide the winner of the Costa del Sol Trophy.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
And while that had been a nasty hoax from Hesterfowl, at least his one good feature remained intact.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
After that, the city’s general fund, which pays for basic services, would cover any remaining shortfall.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Most of the remaining practitioners have little online presence, and many cannot be found through major search platforms.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
The company ended the quarter with $25.4 billion in remaining performance obligations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Burnham and Chancellor John Healey were presented with a reasonable worst-case scenario of the Strait of Hormuz remaining effectively closed for the next five months, and no permanent US-Iran peace deal until the new year.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
And some of them are old and crumbling, back all the way to the Civil War, pensions for the last remaining widows on the Union side.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
