Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell reduce

Reduce is spelled R-E-D-U-C-E.

What it means: To make smaller or less.

In a sentence: You can reduce waste by recycling bottles and cans. ▶

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear.

Same family: reduction, reduced, reducing, reducible, irreducible. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Reduce” comes from Latin 'reducere', meaning 'to lead back' or 'bring back'. Over time, the sense of 'bringing back' shifted into the modern idea of 'making smaller' or 'cutting down'.

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Words like this

refund · funeral · measure · certificate · necessarily · calendar · definitely · geography

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