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.
There was a “very minor incident” on Monday where one slowly moving train bumped into another inside a maintenance and storage facility, Adams said.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 16, 2026
About 22,000 students in England are caught up in the dispute, after being sent letters saying they were given maintenance loans and childcare grants in error and must immediately pay the money back.
From BBC • Apr. 15, 2026
“Deferred maintenance is quite common among seniors who wish to avoid disrupting their way of life,” says Farr.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 15, 2026
A note from one of the investment bank’s analysts highlights the airline’s ability to accelerate the retirement of older planes, which use more fuel and require more maintenance.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026
Like the master score of a bewitchingly complex symphonic work, the genome contains the instructions for the development and maintenance of organisms.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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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