Sustenance

//ˈsʌs.tə.nəns// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Something that provides support or nourishment. countable, uncountable

    "More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel."

  2. 2
    the act of sustaining life by food or providing a means of subsistence wordnet
  3. 3
    a source of materials to nourish the body wordnet
  4. 4
    the financial means whereby one lives wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
nourishmentnutrimentsupportaidalimentaliment

Example

More examples

"To deny sustenance to the Army of Northern Virginia, Sheridan determined to take the entire harvest of the Shenandoah Valley."

Etymology

From Middle English sustenaunce, from Old French sustenance, from sustenir with the suffix -ance, from Vulgar Latin *sustenire, from Latin sustinere. Compare also Late Latin sustinentia.

Related phrases

self-sustenance

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.