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.
Other ways facility managers can reduce the risk of Legionella include disinfecting cooling towers and water systems, establishing a water management program and routinely performing water system maintenance.
From Los Angeles Times • May 18, 2026
“Cooling towers without a comprehensive water management program or lacking routine maintenance are associated with an increased risk for Legionella colonization,” the report said.
From Los Angeles Times • May 18, 2026
More than 30 parents have told BBC Your Voice they've experienced miscalculated child maintenance arrears, money wrongly taken from wages or bank accounts and lengthy court battles with the CMS.
From BBC • May 15, 2026
“LNG export numbers continue to be limited by maintenance across multiple facilities, but we have seen pipeline exports to Mexico increase to levels slightly higher than normal for this time of year.”
From The Wall Street Journal • May 15, 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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