# maintenance

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈmeɪnt(ə)nəns/ · frequency rank #2,741

## Definitions
1. Actions performed to keep some machine or system functioning or in service.
2. 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.
3. Alimony, a periodical payment or a lump sum made or ordered to be made to a spouse after a divorce.
4. Child support.
5. Money required or spent to provide for the needs of a person or a family.
6. The natural process which keeps an organism alive.
7. Ellipsis of maintenance medicine.
8. Software updates that fix bugs and improve stability rather than adding new features.

## 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.

## Common misspellings (17)
`amintenance`, `mainetnance`, `mainntenance`, `mainteannce`, `maintenacne`, `maintenancce`, `maintenanec`, `maintenannce`, `maintenence`, `maintennace`, `maintennance`, `maintneance`, `mainttenance`, `maitnenance`, `manitenance`, `miantenance`, `mmaintenance`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/maintenance