What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

What is the difference between reduce and decrease?

reduce | decrease |

Decrease is a antonym of reduce.

Decrease is a synonym of reduce.



In transitive terms the difference between reduce and decrease

is that reduce is to bring to an inferior state or condition while decrease is to make (a quantity) smaller.

In intransitive terms the difference between reduce and decrease

is that reduce is to lose weight while decrease is of a quantity, to become smaller.

As a noun decrease is

an amount by which a quantity is decreased.

reduce

English

Verb

  • To bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower, to impair.
  • * to reduce weight, speed, heat, expenses, price, personnel etc.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
  • , author=Stephen Ledoux , title=Behaviorism at 100 , volume=100, issue=1, page=60 , magazine= citation , passage=Becoming more aware of the progress that scientists have made on behavioral fronts can reduce the risk that other natural scientists will resort to mystical agential accounts when they exceed the limits of their own disciplinary training.}}
  • To lose weight.
  • To bring to an inferior rank; to degrade, to demote.
  • * to reduce a sergeant to the ranks
  • * An ancient but reduced family. --.
  • * Nothing so excellent but a man may fasten upon something belonging to it, to reduce it. --.
  • * Having reduced their foe to misery beneath their fears. -- .
  • * Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which she found the clergyman reduced . --.
  • *
  • Neither [Jones] nor I (in 1966) could conceive of reducing our "science" to the ultimate absurdity of reading Finnish newspapers almost a century and a half old in order to establish "priority."
  • To humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture.
  • * to reduce a province or a fort
  • To bring to an inferior state or condition.
  • * to reduce a city to ashes
  • (cooking) To decrease the liquid content of food by boiling much of its water off.
  • (chemistry) To add electrons / hydrogen or to remove oxygen.
  • (metallurgy) To produce metal from ore by removing nonmetallic elements in a smelter.
  • (mathematics) To simplify an equation or formula without changing its value.
  • (legal) To convert to written form (Usage note: this verb almost always take the phrase "to writing").
  • * It is important that all business contracts be reduced to writing.
  • (medicine) To perform a reduction; to restore a fracture or dislocation to the correct alignment.
  • (military) To reform a line or column from (a square).
  • Synonyms

    * (to bring down) cut, decrease, lower

    Antonyms

    * (to bring down) increase

    See also

    * reducing agent

    References

    * ----

    decrease

    English

    Verb

    (decreas)
  • Of a quantity, to become smaller.
  • To make (a quantity) smaller.
  • Synonyms

    * (become smaller) drop, fall, go down, plummet (rapidly), plunge (rapidly), reduce, shrink, sink * (make smaller) abate, cut, decrement, lower, reduce

    Antonyms

    * (become larger) go up, grow, increase, rise, soar (rapidly), shoot up (rapidly) * (make larger) increase, increment, raise, up (informal)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An amount by which a quantity is decreased.
  • (knitting) A reduction in the number of stitches, usually accomplished by suspending the stitch to be decreased from another existing stitch or by knitting it together with another stitch. See .
  • Synonyms

    * (amount by which a quantity is decreased) cut, decrement, drop, fall, loss, lowering, reduction, shrinkage

    Antonyms

    * (amount by which a quantity is decreased) gain, increase, increment, raise , rise