Eliminate vs. Reduce — What's the Difference?
Difference Between Eliminate and Reduce
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Compare with Definitions
Eliminate
Completely remove or get rid of (something)
A policy that would eliminate inflation
Reduce
To bring down, as in extent, amount, or degree; diminish.
Eliminate
Expel (waste matter) from the body
This diet claims to eliminate toxins from the body
Reduce
To gain control of; subject or conquer
"a design to reduce them under absolute despotism" (Declaration of Independence).
Eliminate
Remove (a variable) from an equation, typically by substituting another which is shown by another equation to be equivalent.
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Reduce
To subject to destruction
Enemy bombers reduced the city to rubble.
Eliminate
Generate (a simple substance) as a product in the course of a reaction involving larger molecules
The acid portion of one molecule reacts with the basic portion of the other, and water is eliminated
Reduce
To bring to a specified undesirable state, as of weakness or helplessness
Disease that reduced the patient to emaciation.
Teasing that reduced the child to tears.
Eliminate
To get rid of; remove
An effort to eliminate homelessness.
Eliminated his enemies.
Reduce
To compel to desperate acts
The Depression reduced many to begging on street corners.
Eliminate
To leave out or omit from consideration; reject
For now, let's eliminate from the discussion the possibility of failure.
Reduce
To lower in rank or grade; demote.
Eliminate
To remove from consideration by defeating, as in a contest.
Reduce
To thicken or intensify the flavor of (a sauce, for example) by slow boiling.
Eliminate
(Mathematics) To remove (an unknown quantity) by combining equations.
Reduce
To lower the price of
The store has drastically reduced winter coats.
Eliminate
(Physiology) To excrete (bodily wastes).
Reduce
To decrease the viscosity of (paint, for example), as by adding a solvent.
Eliminate
(transitive) To completely remove, get rid of, put an end to.
Reduce
To put in a simpler or more systematic form; simplify or codify
Reduced her ideas to a collection of maxims.
Eliminate
To kill (a person or animal).
A ruthless mobster who eliminated his enemies
Reduce
To turn into powder; pulverize.
Eliminate
To excrete (waste products).
Reduce
To decrease the valence of (an atom) by adding electrons.
Eliminate
(transitive) To exclude (from investigation or from further competition).
Bill was eliminated as a suspect when the police interviewed witnesses.
John was eliminated as a contestant when it was found he had gained, rather than lost, weight.
Reduce
To remove oxygen from (a compound).
Eliminate
(accounting) To record amounts in a consolidation statement to remove the effects of inter-company transactions.
Reduce
To add hydrogen to (a compound).
Eliminate
To put out of doors; to expel; to discharge; to release; to set at liberty.
Eliminate my spirit, give it rangeThrough provinces of thought yet unexplored.
Reduce
To change to a metallic state by removing nonmetallic constituents; smelt.
Eliminate
To cause to disappear from an equation; as, to eliminate an unknown quantity.
Reduce
(Mathematics) To simplify the form of (an expression, such as a fraction) without changing the value.
Eliminate
To set aside as unimportant in a process of inductive inquiry; to leave out of consideration.
Eliminate errors that have been gathering and accumulating.
Reduce
(Medicine) To restore (a fractured or displaced body part) to a normal condition or position.
Eliminate
To obtain by separating, as from foreign matters; to deduce; as, to eliminate an idea or a conclusion.
Reduce
(Linguistics) To pronounce (a stressed vowel) as the unstressed version of that vowel or as schwa.
Eliminate
To separate; to expel from the system; to excrete; as, the kidneys eliminate urea, the lungs carbonic acid; to eliminate poison from the system.
Reduce
To become diminished.
Eliminate
Terminate or take out;
Let's eliminate the course on Akkadian hieroglyphics
Reduce
To lose weight, as by dieting.
Eliminate
Do away with
Reduce
(Biology) To undergo meiosis.
Eliminate
Kill in large numbers;
The plague wiped out an entire population
Reduce
(transitive) To bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower.
To reduce weight, speed, heat, expenses, price, personnel etc.
Eliminate
Dismiss from consideration;
John was ruled out as a possible suspect because he had a strong alibi
This possibility can be eliminated from our consideration
Reduce
(intransitive) To lose weight.
Eliminate
Eliminate from the body;
Pass a kidney stone
Reduce
(transitive) To bring to an inferior rank; to degrade, to demote.
To reduce a sergeant to the ranks
Eliminate
Remove from a contest or race;
The cyclist has eliminated all the competitors in the race
Reduce
(transitive) To humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture.
To reduce a province or a fort
Eliminate
Remove (an unknown variable) from two or more equations
Reduce
(transitive) To bring to an inferior state or condition.
To reduce a city to ashes
Reduce
To decrease the liquid content of food by boiling much of its water off.
Reduce
To add electrons / hydrogen or to remove oxygen.
Formaldehyde can be reduced to form methanol.
Reduce
To produce metal from ore by removing nonmetallic elements in a smelter.
Reduce
To simplify an equation or formula without changing its value.
Reduce
To express the solution of a problem in terms of another (known) algorithm.
Reduce
To convert a syllogism to a clearer or simpler form.
Reduce
To convert to written form. (Usage note: this verb almost always appears as "reduce to writing".)
It is important that all business contracts be reduced to writing.
Reduce
To perform a reduction; to restore a fracture or dislocation to the correct alignment.
Reduce
To reform a line or column from (a square).
Reduce
To strike off the payroll.
Reduce
To annul by legal means.
Reduce
To translate (a book, document, etc.).
A book reduced into English
Reduce
To bring or lead back to any former place or condition.
And to his brother's house reduced his wife.
The sheep must of necessity be scattered, unless the great Shephered of souls oppose, or some of his delegates reduce and direct us.
Reduce
To bring to any inferior state, with respect to rank, size, quantity, quality, value, etc.; to diminish; to lower; to degrade; to impair; as, to reduce a sergeant to the ranks; to reduce a drawing; to reduce expenses; to reduce the intensity of heat.
Nothing so excellent but a man may fasten upon something belonging to it, to reduce it.
Having reducedTheir foe to misery beneath their fears.
Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which she found the clergyman reduced.
Reduce
To bring to terms; to humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture; as, to reduce a province or a fort.
Reduce
To bring to a certain state or condition by grinding, pounding, kneading, rubbing, etc.; as, to reduce a substance to powder, or to a pasty mass; to reduce fruit, wood, or paper rags, to pulp.
It were but rightAnd equal to reduce me to my dust.
Reduce
To bring into a certain order, arrangement, classification, etc.; to bring under rules or within certain limits of descriptions and terms adapted to use in computation; as, to reduce animals or vegetables to a class or classes; to reduce a series of observations in astronomy; to reduce language to rules.
Reduce
To change, as numbers, from one denomination into another without altering their value, or from one denomination into others of the same value; as, to reduce pounds, shillings, and pence to pence, or to reduce pence to pounds; to reduce days and hours to minutes, or minutes to days and hours.
Reduce
To add an electron to an atom or ion.
Reduce
To restore to its proper place or condition, as a displaced organ or part; as, to reduce a dislocation, a fracture, or a hernia.
Reduce
Cut down on; make a reduction in;
Reduce your daily fat intake
The employer wants to cut back health benefits
Reduce
Make less complex;
Reduce a problem to a single question
Reduce
Bring to humbler or weaker state or condition;
He reduced the population to slavery
Reduce
Simplify the form of a mathematical equation of expression by substituting one term for another
Reduce
Lower in grade or rank or force somebody into an undignified situation;
She reduced her niece to a servant
Reduce
Be the essential element;
The proposal boils down to a compromise
Reduce
Reduce in size; reduce physically;
Hot water will shrink the sweater
Can you shrink this image?
Reduce
Lessen and make more modest;
Reduce one's standard of living
Reduce
Make smaller;
Reduce an image
Reduce
To remove oxygen from a compound, or cause to react with hydrogen or form a hydride, or to undergo an increase in the number of electrons
Reduce
Narrow or limit;
Reduce the influx of foreigners
Reduce
Put down by force or intimidation;
The government quashes any attempt of an uprising
China keeps down her dissidents very efficiently
The rich landowners subjugated the peasants working the land
Reduce
Undergo meiosis;
The cells reduce
Reduce
Reposition (a broken bone after surgery) back to its normal site
Reduce
Reduce in scope while retaining essential elements;
The manuscript must be shortened
Reduce
Be cooked until very little liquid is left;
The sauce should reduce to one cup
Reduce
Cook until very little liquid is left;
The cook reduced the sauce by boiling it for a long time
Reduce
Lessen the strength or flavor of a solution or mixture;
Cut bourbon
Reduce
Take off weight
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