sustenance

[ suhs-tuh-nuhns ]

noun

1. means of sustaining or supporting life or health; nourishment, especially food and drink:

   The small farm provided sustenance for the family of four during tough times.

2. one's means of livelihood:

   Buying handmade cloth from weavers ensures their sustenance.

3. something that sustains or comforts, especially a source of spiritual support:

   He is strong and peaceful and confident in the love of Jesus Christ, which is his sustenance right now.

4. the process of sustaining:

   Critical journalism has played an invaluable role in the sustenance of democratic governance in Nigeria.

5. the state of being sustained:

   Forest-clearing technology may be viewed as a useful tool contributing to human sustenance and self-sufficiency.

sustenance

/ ˈsʌstənəns /

noun

1. means of sustaining health or life; nourishment
2. means of maintenance; livelihood
3. Alsosustentionsəˈstɛnʃən the act or process of sustaining or the quality of being sustained

Other Words From

• sus·te·nance·less adjective
• non·sus·te·nance noun
• self-sus·te·nance noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of sustenance¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English sustenaunce, sustinaunce, from Anglo-French sustenance, from Old French sostenance; sustain, -ance

Word History and Origins

Origin of sustenance¹

C13: from Old French sostenance, from sustenir to sustain

Example Sentences

Each of the everybody’s-making-it dishes that popped up this year spoke to our hungers — for sustenance, maybe, for comfort, for inspiration, or just for novelty.

From Washington Post

I grew up learning to cook what’s on hand, and now it’s my pandemic superpowerAccording to its website, Meals on Wheels Atlanta served 519,000 meals in 2019, providing not only nutrition and sustenance but also human interaction and companionship.

From Washington Post

Food operators know some customers visit them as much for service as for sustenance.

From Washington Post

The body, he explains, devours itself in the hunt for sustenance, depleting energy levels and producing side effects like anemia, fluid build-up, and chronic diarrhea.

From MIT Technology Review

The moment we take sustenance from it, we enfold it and its inhabitants into our bodies.

From Nautilus

The formula used to determine “absolute poverty” is defined as an income that allows for a basic level of sustenance.

From The Daily Beast

We have come to depend on our technology for emotional sustenance.

From The Daily Beast

Well, no, actually you are feeding your kids properly by giving them healthy, nutritious food, and emotional sustenance, too.

From The Daily Beast

But literary fame never translated into economic success, or even much beyond sustenance.

From The Daily Beast

During particularly harsh beginnings upon landing in the New World, desperate colonists resorted to human flesh for sustenance.

From The Daily Beast

But like the bee, while impelled by an instinct that makes it search for sugar, it sucks in therewith its solid sustenance.

From Project Gutenberg

She thus derived from him a rather large part of the sustenance which she believed she owed only to her own efforts.

From Project Gutenberg

Indeed, the whole osseous structure of those animals proves that they were formed to uprend the trees that gave them sustenance.

From Project Gutenberg

I sent a waiter for café-au-lait and a brioche and lectured her on the folly of going without proper sustenance.

From Project Gutenberg

Decaying nature could no longer be recruited by ordinary sources of strength and sustenance.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• livelihood
• nourishment
• nutrition
• subsistence