Decrease
Decrease verb - To make smaller in amount, volume, or extent.
Usage example: workers decreased the volume of water flowing through the pipes in order to prevent an overflow
Reduce is a synonym for decrease in quantity topic. In some cases you can use "Reduce" instead a verb "Decrease", when it comes to topics like drop, decline, moderate, increase. popular alternative
Reduce
Reduce verb - To make smaller in amount, volume, or extent.
Usage example: you'll have to reduce the amount of money you spend on unnecessary purchases if you want to have any money left for retirement
Decrease is a synonym for reduce in lessen topic. You can use "Decrease" instead a verb "Reduce", if it concerns topics such as quantity, drop, decline, increase. popular alternative
Mutual synonyms
Common collocations
| power | decrease power | reduce power |
| score | decrease score | reduce score |
| cost | decrease cost | reduce cost |
| value | decrease value | reduce value |
| Other words: stress, amount, mass, chance, number, time, speed, level, size, health, sentence, difficulty, weight, resistance, effectiveness, population, damage, risk, enemy, costs, points, chances, enemies, stats. | ||
Both words in one sentence
-
Usually, something that restores one bar will reduce the other — for example, eating lemons will decrease exhaustion and increase immunity, but it'll also increase your hunger.
Source: Video Game / Pathologic - You can reduce your panic with beta blocker drugs and alcohol, and your tendency to panic will naturally decrease the longer you survive and the more zombies you kill.
Source: Video Game / Project Zomboid -
Batou later has to decide whether he should decrease the difficulty for new recruits to join S9, knowing that doing so would reduce the overall quality and potential each member has.
Cite this Source
Reduce and Decrease. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 21, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/decrease/reduce
Decrease & Reduce. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/decrease/reduce>.
Reduce or Decrease. 2016. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/decrease/reduce.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "decrease" and "reduce" have occurred on timeline