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.
With annual maintenance fees now above $1,500 on average, distress is nothing new for the industry.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 28, 2026
Indonesia's public transport network in general has a high accident rate, due in part to ageing infrastructure and poor maintenance.
From BBC • Apr. 27, 2026
AAR, an independent maintenance, repair and overhaul provider with global operations, rotates weekend shifts so technicians aren’t always working Saturdays and Sundays.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 26, 2026
The lower staffing has prompted worry about parks’ capacity for emergency response, protection of the natural landscape and custodial maintenance.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 26, 2026
It was, she thought, like refusing to hand over maintenance records at the sale of a secondhand car.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
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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