maintenance
Usage
What are other ways to say maintenance?
Generally, maintenance refers to care or upkeep, as of machinery or property. But sometimes, maintenance refers to what is spent for the living of another: to provide for the maintenance or support of someone. Maintenance occasionally refers to the allowance itself provided for livelihood: They are entitled to a maintenance from this estate. Living and livelihood (a somewhat more formal word), both refer to what one earns to keep (oneself) alive, but are seldom interchangeable within the same phrase: to earn one's living; to threaten one's livelihood. “To make a living” suggests making just enough to keep alive, and is particularly frequent in the negative: You cannot make a living out of that. “To make a livelihood out of something” suggests rather making a business of it: to make a livelihood out of knitting hats.
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.
It added it had raised the graduate repayment threshold since coming into government for the first time since 2021, and brought back some targeted maintenance loans.
From BBC • Jun. 1, 2026
The work addressed leaks, aging infrastructure and other maintenance issues at the historic site.
From Salon • May 31, 2026
The results showed that sleep deprivation disrupted the maintenance of synaptic plasticity in the CA2 region.
From Science Daily • May 30, 2026
Because HOA managers typically outsource tasks such as building maintenance, landscaping, legal services and accounting, they are light on fixed assets, with low overhead and lean staffing—attractive qualities for investment firms.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 29, 2026
He insisted that blindness and indifference to racial groups is actually more important than racial hostility to the creation and maintenance of racialized systems of control.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
Vocabulary lists containing maintenance
Freak the Mighty
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Declaration of the Rights of Woman (1791)
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Franklin D. Roosevelt, "A Date That Will Live In Infamy" (1941)
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