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Synonyms

maintain

American

[mayn-tayn] / 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.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

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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

The only contact many children maintain with their infected parents comes through photographs and videos taken by healthcare workers.

From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026

But she is also proud of the work she and her team did to maintain connection between Americans and ordinary Russians.

From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026

Competition in the connectivity space has been growing, especially in broadband, as cable companies and mobile carriers fight to attract and maintain customers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

DHA is a major component of brain cell membranes, helping maintain the structure and function of neurons.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 22, 2026

Prehistory was a phase of evolution during which humans learned how to maintain themselves against a hostile environment.

From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson

Goldman maintains a proprietary index that tracks the relative performance of the stocks most popular with hedge funds against that of the most-shorted names.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 23, 2026

Apple maintains that widening access could undermine security, and that its current arrangements do not stop innovation.

From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2026

Citi maintains its 3,000,000 won target price and a buy rating on the stock.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026

This tendency is related to homeostasis, the process through which a system maintains a relatively stable internal state.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 19, 2026

They, he maintains, do not have an adequate conception of an omnipotent god.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

For most of the war, Tehran maintained a crucial economic lifeline: dozens of tankers holding millions of barrels of crude sitting safely in Asian waters, quietly supplying Chinese refineries and generating billions in cash.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

Manning, who shares twins—son Marshall and daughter Mosley—with his wife, Ashley, has maintained strong ties to Colorado since joining the Broncos in 2012.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 22, 2026

However, the astronauts involved in the new study generally handled this transition well, potentially because they had maintained demanding exercise schedules throughout their missions.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 21, 2026

The Cleveland Browns maintained their surprise start while the Houston Texans concluded this year's London series by winning a thriller at Wembley.

From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026

White and his agents spoke to Bunch, who maintained his innocence and told a curious story about Hale.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

Bloom Energy said it’s now targeting between $4.4 billion and $4.6 billion in revenue this year, versus the $4.26 billion consensus, while maintaining its adjusted gross margin outlook of 34%.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 23, 2026

"For Kim Jong Un, maintaining the status quo is the best option right now."

From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026

Under the plan, U.K. gas network operator National Gas will be able recover the costs of maintaining the gas import capability and pipelines.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

Because mitochondria are essential for maintaining healthy cells, disruptions to their energy production could potentially contribute to cellular dysfunction in some of these conditions.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 21, 2026

I knew my brother and other young men devoted years to maintaining the roads and their little sisters, the bridges.

From "The Ugly One" by Leanne Statland Ellis

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