## Meanings
1. To make something smaller in size, amount, or degree.
2. To make something simpler or break it down to a basic form.
3. To force someone into a worse or lower position.
4. To boil a liquid so that some of it evaporates and it becomes thicker.

## Examples
- The new policy aims to reduce traffic in the city center.
- She reduced the problem to a single question.
- The war reduced once-wealthy families to poverty.
- The cook reduced the sauce by boiling it for a long time.

## Derived Forms
- bioreduce
- cytoreduce
- deuteroreduce
- photoreduce
- reducement
- reducer
- reducetarian
- reductant
- rereduce

## Related Forms
- reducible
- reductase
- reduction
- reductive

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *dewk-
- Root: reducen
- Root: reduire
- Root: redūcō

## Etymology
From Middle English reducen, from Old French reduire, from Latin redūcō (“reduce”); from re- (“back”) + dūcō (“lead”). See duke, and compare with redoubt.

## AI Etymology
Reduce comes from Middle English reducen, from Old French reduire, from Latin redūcō (“reduce”); from re- (“back”) + dūcō (“lead”). See duke, and compare with redoubt. Modern senses include to make something smaller in size, amount, or degree. and to make something simpler or break it down to a basic form.. The wider word family includes derivatives such as bioreduce, cytoreduce, deuteroreduce, photoreduce, reducement, and reducer and related forms such as reducible, reductase, reduction, and reductive.

## Topics
- Cause, Change & Process

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