Synonyms

sustain

American

[suh-stayn] / səˈsteɪn /

verb (used with object)

to support, hold, or bear up from below; bear the weight of, as a structure.

Synonyms:

carry
to bear (a burden, charge, etc.).
to undergo, experience, or suffer (injury, loss, etc.); endure without giving way or yielding.

Synonyms:

bear
to keep (a person, the mind, the spirits, etc.) from giving way, as under trial or affliction.
to keep up or keep going, as an action or process.

to sustain a conversation.

Synonyms:

maintain
to supply with food, drink, and other necessities of life.
to provide for (an institution or the like) by furnishing means or funds.
to support (a cause or the like) by aid or approval.
to uphold as valid, just, or correct, as a claim or the person making it.

The judge sustained the lawyer's objection.
to confirm or corroborate, as a statement.

Further investigation sustained my suspicions.

sustain British

/ səˈsteɪn /

verb

to hold up under; withstand

to sustain great provocation
to undergo (an injury, loss, etc); suffer

to sustain a broken arm
to maintain or prolong

to sustain a discussion
to support physically from below
to provide for or give support to, esp by supplying necessities

to sustain one's family
to sustain a charity
to keep up the vitality or courage of
to uphold or affirm the justice or validity of

to sustain a decision
to establish the truth of; confirm

"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

noun

music the prolongation of a note, by playing technique or electronics

"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 sustain? To sustain a claim or an idea is to uphold it as valid, just or correct. How does sustain differ from the synonyms maintain, support, or uphold? Find out on Thesaurus.com.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of sustain

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English suste(i)nen, from Anglo-French sustenir, Old French, from Latin sustinēre “to uphold,” equivalent to sus- sus- + -tinēre, combining form of tenēre “to hold”

Explanation

Sustain means to support something or keep it going. If you get hungry in the mid-afternoon, you might try snacking to sustain your energy through dinner. Beams and rafters sustain a roof — they keep it up. If you sustain a conversation over the course of hours, you keep it going during that time. If you sustain an injury, it means you are injured. If you sustain an interest in what you're studying, it means that you're just as excited about the subject after studying as you are when you began.

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Vocabulary lists containing sustain

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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:

sustain sustains sustained sustaining

The strategy allows for real-time responses from customers about the technology, which has allowed Palantir to improve its product development and sustain its lead over software competitors, Borges said.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026

Experts and many business leaders warn however that Japan must welcome more foreign workers to sustain itself.

From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026

The river also depends on melting snow to sustain it in the summer.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

“The key question isn’t whether contracts can smooth the cycle, but whether AI investment remains strong enough to sustain it,” Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya wrote in a recent note.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

The small population size of tribelets explains not only why they can’t sustain epidemics introduced from the outside, but also why they never could evolve epidemic diseases of their own to give back to visitors.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Currently the resurgence is fuelled locally by anger over foreign trawlers which overfish in Somali waters, damaging the fishing industry that sustains communities in Puntland.

From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026

But "higher oil prices is likely going to translate into higher prices for the consumer if it sustains at this level."

From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026

“You can only find it in King’s Landing. It sustains itself on the waste of other creatures. It’s beautiful.”

From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026

Two and a half centuries after its founding, the American experiment faces a familiar question: What manner of leadership sustains a democratic republic over time?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026

That which sustains the universe beyond thought and language, and that which is at the core of us and struggles for expression, is the same thing.

From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel

Anthropic has raised eyebrows by announcing it will ban users from "sustained and needless" abusive behaviour towards its AI.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

BASTIAN: I don’t know what the next year holds, but if we see today’s fuel prices on a sustained basis, you will see fallout of some variety.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

Unless a test indicates the very rare but serious Cushing’s syndrome—identified by sustained high cortisol levels—she won’t necessarily need to do anything with the results they show her.

From Slate ● Oct. 9, 2026

In Gambia and Mauritania in western Africa, the industry drives food insecurity as fish that once sustained local communities are diverted into fishmeal factories.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026

Second, Jefferson suggested that Adams’s description of aristocratic power was appropriate for Europe, where feudal privileges, family titles, and more limited economic opportunities created conditions that sustained class distinctions.

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

D2 and D3 can both contribute to vitamin D status, but they are not necessarily metabolically interchangeable, and D3 appears to have an advantage when the goal is raising and sustaining vitamin D levels.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026

After sustaining extensive damage from waves brought on by Hurricane Marie in early September, the Long Beach peninsula will soon be threatened by Hurricane Polo.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026

A torn ACL could have ended the season for the second-year quarterback who missed two games last year after sustaining a concussion.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026

It estimates that Himalayan water underpins roughly 20% of India's GDP, sustaining wheat, rice, tea, hydropower and pilgrimage economies.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

“What we going to do?” he repeated at last; and felt that the sustaining life had gone out of him.

From "Go Tell It on the Mountain" by James Baldwin

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