maintain
Americanverb (used with object)
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maintains,
present (3rd person singular)
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maintained,
past participle, past
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maintaining
present participle
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to keep in existence or continuance; preserve; retain.
to maintain good relations with neighboring countries.
- Antonyms:
- discontinue
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to keep in an appropriate condition, operation, or force; keep unimpaired.
to maintain order; to maintain public highways.
- Synonyms:
- keep up
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to keep in a specified state, position, etc..
to maintain a correct posture; to maintain good health.
-
He maintained that the country was going downhill.
- Synonyms:
- asseverate
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to support in speech or argument, as a statement or proposition.
- Antonyms:
- contradict
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to keep or hold against attack.
to maintain one's ground.
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to provide for the upkeep or support of; carry the expenses of.
to maintain a family.
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to sustain or support.
not enough water to maintain life.
verb
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to continue or retain; keep in existence
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to keep in proper or good condition
to maintain a building
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to support a style of living
the money maintained us for a month
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(takes a clause as object) to state or assert
he maintained that Talbot was wrong
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to defend against contradiction; uphold
she maintained her innocence
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to defend against physical attack
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
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maintainabilitynoun
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maintainernoun
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premaintainverb (used with object)
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undermaintainverb (used with object)
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maintainableadjective
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self-maintainedadjective
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self-maintainingadjective
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undermaintainedadjective
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unmaintainableadjective
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unmaintainedadjective
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well-maintainedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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maintainsimple
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maintainssimple
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have maintainedperfect
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has maintainedperfect
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am maintainingprogressive
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are maintainingprogressive
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is maintainingprogressive
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have been maintainingperfect progressive
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has been maintainingperfect progressive
Past
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maintainedsimple
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had maintainedperfect
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was maintainingprogressive
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were maintainingprogressive
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had been maintainingperfect progressive
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.
Vocabulary lists containing maintain
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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:
The policy also allows the United States's top AI labs to maintain their global lead.
From Barron's ● Nov. 10, 2026
Can they, under more pressure - because they are going to face more pressure, particularly against New Zealand - still maintain that discipline and decision-making?
From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2026
“There are nations that are asking themselves if they have the right philosophy around how much inventory to maintain and where,” BP chief executive Meg O’Neill said in an interview.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2026
This material forms two reflective cable nets that are held under tension against one another by springs, helping the resulting surface maintain its intended shape.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 9, 2026
It is, I maintain, incompatible with any grasp of the achievements of modern science.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
The U.S. maintains deep, longstanding ties with three Pacific island nations just north of the equator: the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2026
Outright fighting has largely subsided, but Iran continues in its efforts to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, vital to global energy supplies, while the US Navy maintains its own counterblockade of Iranian ports.
From Barron's ● Nov. 9, 2026
The firm had been suspected of helping divert Nvidia chips to China, a concern that Nvidia maintains was investigated and debunked.
From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2026
The company said it maintains “the highest standards of legal and ethical conduct.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2026
The family maintains at least eight country houses, according to books by his former chef and a former bodyguard.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
"Even if the game may look different, we've maintained the essence that the original developers wanted to and hopefully conveyed through the original Ocarina of Time," Fujibayashi said.
From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2026
Even more surprising, the debris is divided into two distinct rings, with a clear gap between them that may be maintained by planetary bodies that somehow survived their star's death.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2026
A camera operator built a custom housing that kept his hands warm at –40 degrees Celsius while he maintained enough dexterity to fly a drone.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
The company maintained its annual net profit forecast of 310 billion yen.
From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2026
“I have maintained for years,” Moore wrote, “that one hundred well-disciplined persons could break the backbone of segregated travel in North Carolina in less than a year.”
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
It might help the widow gain clarity about whether those relationships are worth maintaining.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 9, 2026
The researchers suspect that two surviving planetary bodies, each traveling along a separate orbit, are responsible for maintaining the double ring structure.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2026
The coroner said there had been no effective regime for maintaining the vehicle which struck George and it was not routinely used for disembarking troops.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
Most Jewish Americans don’t keep kosher; even most who avoid pork and shellfish don’t go to the effort of maintaining separate dishes and utensils for meat and dairy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
It hinged on them maintaining the appearance of their fight, so they parted ways before they reached Booker.
From "Book Scavenger" by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
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