maintenance
/ˈmeɪnt(ə)nəns/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.55 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A tort and (in some jurisdictions) an offence committed when a third party who does not have a bona fide interest in a lawsuit provides help or acquires an interest to a litigant's lawsuit.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "They are all preventable by proper maintenance, but non-safety critical maintenance has to be evaluated, so failures are an accepted penalty for keeping maintenance costs down."
- "From Pond to Pond he roamed, from moor to moor; / Housing, with God's good help, by choice or chance: / And in this way he gained an honest maintenance."
- "a maintenance release; a maintenance version"
Etymology
From Middle English mayntenaunce, from Old French maintenance, from maintenir, from Latin manus tenēre (“to hold in the hand”). By surface analysis, maintain + -ance. Note that maintain has undergone a sound and spelling change, hence is spelt with -tain-, rather than the -ten- still found in maintenance.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
- Uncountable
- British usage
- Colloquial