maintenance
Pluralmaintenances (some meanings)
- 1The work of keeping something, such as a building, machine, or piece of software, in good condition and working order, including repairs and fixes.
Like tending a garden so it keeps producing: neglect it and it falls apart.
The bridge requires constant maintenance to remain safe for traffic.
Skipping routine maintenance shortened the engine's lifespan considerably.
UsageSpelled maintenance (not
incorrect: maintainance), though the verb is maintain. Common in maintenance costs, regular maintenance, routine maintenance.Similarupkeep
- 2Money needed to meet a person's or family's needs, or the amount spent meeting them.
Like the running costs that keep a household afloat month to month.
Under the terms of the will, the estate set aside an annual sum for the maintenance of his widow and their three children.
The estate provided enough for the maintenance of the whole household.
UsageOften for the maintenance of someone: a yearly sum for the maintenance of his children.
Similarsustenance
Note
The general sense that the family-law payments narrow down: whatever keeps a person or household provided for. It can take an article when it means a livelihood. Wordsworth, in Resolution and Independence, has a wanderer who "gained an honest maintenance" roaming from pond to pond.
- 3Regular payments, or a lump sum, that a person is required to make toward the living costs of a former spouse or partner or of their children, especially after a separation or divorce.
Under the settlement, he was required to pay maintenance until his former wife remarried.
The judge reduced the monthly maintenance after his income fell.
UsageUsually with pay: he pays maintenance, monthly maintenance. A court orders it.
Similarsupport
Note
British legal usage for what American English calls alimony or child support. A court can order it as regular periodical payments or as a single lump sum, and the verb it takes is pay: he pays maintenance, the court orders maintenance. After a divorce the same word covers support for a former spouse and for the children, so whose living costs the money supports tells you which is meant.
Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- A court can order regular maintenance payments. gov.uk
- A court can order a lump sum to provide support instead of ongoing maintenance. moneyhelper.org.uk
- Child maintenance is ordinarily paid to the receiving parent. The same former spouse can therefore receive both kinds; whose living costs the payment supports distinguishes them. gov.uk
- 4The natural processes that keep an organism alive and functioning.
A basal metabolic rate reflects the energy used for the body's maintenance at rest.
Cells devote considerable resources to the maintenance of internal balance.
Note
A biologist's term for the upkeep of the living body itself: the energy and work spent holding internal balance steady and replacing what wears out. Its value lies in the contrast it sets up between energy for maintenance and energy for growth or reproduction. Basal metabolic rate is essentially a measure of the first. It is the engineering sense turned inward.
Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Biological maintenance includes maintaining internal balance. link.springer.com
- Biological maintenance includes replacing damaged or worn components. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Biologists distinguish energy allocated to maintenance from energy allocated to growth or reproduction. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Basal metabolic rate essentially measures energy expenditure on basic maintenance functions. esa.org
Less common meanings
- 5Short form of maintenance medicine, chiefly in Philippine English: medication taken regularly over a long period to keep a chronic condition under control.
- 6The wrongful act, treated as a tort and in some places a crime, of a disinterested third party assisting or funding another person's lawsuit.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English mayntenaunce, from Old French maintenance, from the verb maintenir, which goes back to Latin manū tenēre ("to hold in the hand"). It can be analyzed as maintain plus -ance, though maintain changed in sound and spelling to -tain-, while maintenance keeps the older -ten-.
Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Maintenance comes from Middle English mayntenaunce, from Old French maintenance, from maintenir. en.wiktionary.org
- The expression is manū tenēre: manū is the ablative of manus, meaning "with/in/by the hand"; tenēre means "to hold". en.wiktionary.org
- Maintenance can be analyzed as maintain plus -ance. en.wiktionary.org
- Maintain underwent a sound and spelling change, while maintenance retains the older -ten-. en.wiktionary.org