maintenance

Meaning

1. (uncountable, usually) Actions performed to keep some machine or system functioning or in service.
2. (uncountable, usually) A tort and (in some jurisdictions) an offence committed when a third party who does not have a bona fide interest in a lawsuit provides help or acquires an interest to a litigant's lawsuit.
3. (UK, uncountable, usually) Alimony, a periodical payment or a lump sum made or ordered to be made to a spouse after a divorce.
4. (uncountable, usually) Child support.
5. (uncountable, usually) Money required or spent to provide for the needs of a person or a family.
6. (uncountable, usually) The natural process which keeps an organism alive.
7. (Philippines, abbreviation, alt-of, colloquial, ellipsis, uncountable, usually) Ellipsis of maintenance medicine.
8. (attributive, uncountable, usually) Software updates that fix bugs and improve stability rather than adding new features.

Synonyms

upkeep

support

preservation

alimony

service

conservation

sustenance

retention

keeping

keep

repair

protection

repairs

subsistence

care

sustentation

observance

nourishment

servicing

livelihood

sustainment

storage

facelift

exploitation

custody

living

living allowance

backing

compliance

holding

control

fix-up

renovation

attendance

possession

mending

adherence

criminal maintenance

exploiting

cherishing

duty period

charge

ascendancy

dress

👗

defensibility

curing

bringing up

ascendance

administration

interview

Translations

mantenimiento

Instandhaltung

entretien

maintenance

manutenzione

Wartung

manteniment

manutenção

mantenimento

maintien

συντήρηση

Unterhaltung

onderhoud

Unterhalt

Erhaltung

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈmeɪnt(ə)nəns/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: mayntenaunce

In summary

From Middle English mayntenaunce, from Old French maintenance, from maintenir, from Latin manus tenēre (“to hold in the hand”). By surface analysis, maintain + -ance.
Note that maintain has undergone a sound and spelling change, hence is spelt with -tain-, rather than the -ten- still found in maintenance.

Sentences

The tasks of maintenance and operations were assigned to the whites .

Maintenance tasks such as mowing and plowing were performed by the city .