reduction
/rɪˈdʌkʃ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
1The action or fact of making something smaller or less in amount, degree, or size: talks on arms reduction [count noun]: there had been a reduction in the number of casualties...
- A reduction in size at that time may have allowed buntings to exploit that new food resource (grass seeds).
- If there's a sustained period of reduced car crime and a reduction in claims, I think we would expect to see some sort of reduction in your car insurance, or alternatively a slow-down in the rate of increase.
- A reduction in the dividend would save the company £150 million.
Synonyms
depletion, cut, cutting, cutback, scaling down, trimming, slimming (down), pruning, axing, chopping, curtailment, limiting
easing, lightening, moderation, dilution, mitigation, commuting, qualification, alleviation, relaxation, abatement
demotion, downgrading, lowering;
abasement, humbling, demeaning, belittling, humiliation, bringing low
1.1 [count noun] The amount by which something is made smaller, less, or lower in price: special reductions on knitwear...
- The Fed's five interest rate reductions this year have lowered the overnight bank lending rate to 4 percent.
- As we saw in the US earlier in the year, the immediate reaction of share prices to interest rate reductions tends to be positive.
- In any industry, oversupply leads to price reductions and pressure on profit margins.
Synonyms
lessening, lowering, decrease, diminution, minimizing
discount, markdown, deduction, (price) cut, pullback, concession, allowance
informal slash
1.2The simplification of a subject or problem to a particular form in presentation or analysis: the reduction of classical genetics to molecular biology...
- I find this reduction of the subject to a victim sad.
- Along with its adoption has come a simplification and reduction of the concept into forms that are more readily measured and calculated.
- The reduction of reasoning to mechanical calculation that they identified is no clearer than in the inhuman logic of capitalist exchange.
1.3 Mathematics The process of converting an amount from one denomination to a smaller one, or of bringing down a fraction to its lowest terms.In particular Zhang sees the reduction of fractions to a common denominator as hard.
1.4 Biology The halving of the number of chromosomes per cell that occurs at one of the two anaphases of meiosis.Sexual plant reproduction involves a reduction of the somatic chromosome number by meiosis followed by a restoration of the somatic chromosome number by fertilization....
- The reduction in cell number of the female gametophyte and embryo allows a large number of megasporogenesis events to occur in the ovary.
- Double reduction is a phenomenon that two sister chromatids of a chromosome sort into the same gamete.
2 [count noun] A thing that is made smaller or less in size or amount, in particular:
2.1An arrangement of an orchestral score for piano or for a smaller group of performers.Kudos must be given to Björling's unsung accompanist, particularly in the piano reductions of the arias....
- The simple idea is that the student scores the piano reduction of, say, a Mozart symphony for the same forces as Mozart uses and then compares his version with Mozart's full score.
- Although the composer himself prepared the piano reduction, one misses the vivid panoply of orchestral sonorities in La Valse.
2.2A thick and concentrated liquid or sauce made by boiling.Remember, most sauces are reductions, therefore the taste will be concentrated....
- A wonderful sweet sauce, a reduction of olive oil and ketchup, had been dotted in the four cardinal points of the plate.
- This was a deep, concentrated sauce, a model reduction of proper fish stock, wine and cream.
2.3A copy of a picture or photograph made on a smaller scale than the original.The painting itself did not subsequently spawn any of the painted repetitions and reductions that complicate the pedigree of Delaroche's later works....
- Two of the works that they acquired were bought as reductions of the previously mentioned Napoleon at Fontainebleau and Napoleon Crossing the Alps.
- Experimentation is necessary to determine the dilution required for a particular reduction.
3The action of remedying a dislocation or fracture by returning the affected part of the body to its normal position: we must see if the fracture requires reduction...
- Subsequent plain films and computed tomography confirmed satisfactory reduction with no acetabular fracture.
- Reduction of acute nasal fractures in the primary care setting is confined largely to the closed reduction of mild unilateral fractures.
- Seven years prior to admission, he sustained a traumatic ankle fracture that required surgical reduction.
4 Chemistry The process or result of reducing or being reduced: the reaction is limited to reduction to the hydrocarbon...
- Oxidation and reduction are two processes that are quite common in chemical reactions.
- The carboxyl group can also be converted into an alcohol by reduction of the carbonyl carbon.
- For example reduction of ethanol gives the alkene ethene.
5 Phonetics Substitution of a sound which requires less muscular effort to articulate: the process of vowel reduction...
- The process that changed ‘iced cream’ to ‘ice cream’ is called consonant cluster reduction, by the way.
- Also of interest are the examples in the lyrics of the sort of phonological reduction typical of the rapid speech of native English speakers.
Origin
Late Middle English (denoting the action of bringing back): from Old French, or from Latin reductio(n-), from reducere 'bring back, restore' (see reduce). The sense development was broadly similar to that of reduce; sense 1 dates from the late 17th century.