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.
The monthly fee, similar to a condo’s HOA fee, covers things like maintenance services, dining, utilities and access to campus amenities like the fitness center and indoor swimming pool.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 10, 2026
Golf Association once listed five major causes of slow play: management practices, player behavior, player ability, course maintenance and setup, and course-design difficulty.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026
The massive event is expected to require an array of services, including trash pickup, bus service, street closures, park maintenance, drinking water stations and building inspections of temporary Olympic structures.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026
The only points of passage that have tollbooths are the Suez and Panama canals, both of which are artificial constructions that require maintenance.
From Barron's • Apr. 9, 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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