Contract vs. Reduce — What's the Difference?
By Fiza Rafique & Urooj Arif — Updated on May 15, 2024
A contract specifies terms for mutual agreements, often legally binding, whereas reduce refers to decreasing quantity, size, or importance.
Difference Between Contract and Reduce
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
A contract is a formal agreement between two or more parties that outlines obligations and rights, legally enforceable. On the other hand, to reduce something means to make it smaller or less in amount, size, or importance.
Contracts are crucial in business, employment, and various transactions, ensuring clarity and setting legal parameters. Conversely, reducing is often a strategy or outcome in contexts like budgeting, management, or even cooking, focusing on minimizing elements.
The creation of a contract involves negotiation and mutual consent, which formalizes the arrangement in a documented form. Whereas, reducing something can be a unilateral decision or a collective effort aimed at efficiency or downsizing.
In legal terms, breaching a contract can lead to lawsuits and penalties, underscoring the seriousness of contractual commitments. On the other hand, the act of reducing does not inherently involve legal consequences but can impact efficiency, quality, or satisfaction.
Contracts often specify conditions under which terms might be modified or terminated, thus managing expectations and obligations. In contrast, reducing typically aims to adapt to changing circumstances or improve outcomes, such as reducing costs or waste in a process.
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Comparison Chart
Definition
A legal agreement between parties
Making something smaller or less in amount
Function
Establishes legal obligations and rights
Decreases size, quantity, or importance
Context
Used in legal, business, and personal relations
Applied in various settings like budgeting, cooking
Consequences
Breaching can result in legal action
Often aims to increase efficiency or lower costs
Outcome
Provides a structured agreement
Results in diminished dimensions or quantities
Compare with Definitions
Contract
Legally binding agreement.
They entered a contract that specified the scope of the work.
Reduce
To bring down, as in extent, amount, or degree; diminish.
Contract
Outlines terms and conditions.
The contract includes clauses that protect both parties' interests.
Reduce
To gain control of; subject or conquer
"a design to reduce them under absolute despotism" (Declaration of Independence).
Contract
Can be verbal or written.
Despite being a verbal agreement, the contract is still enforceable.
Reduce
To subject to destruction
Enemy bombers reduced the city to rubble.
Contract
A contract is a legally binding document between at least two parties that defines and governs the rights and duties of the parties to an agreement. A contract is legally enforceable because it meets the requirements and approval of the law.
Reduce
To bring to a specified undesirable state, as of weakness or helplessness
Disease that reduced the patient to emaciation.
Teasing that reduced the child to tears.
Contract
An agreement between two or more parties, especially one that is written and enforceable by law.
Reduce
To compel to desperate acts
The Depression reduced many to begging on street corners.
Contract
The writing or document containing such an agreement.
Reduce
To lower in rank or grade; demote.
Contract
The branch of law dealing with formal agreements between parties.
Reduce
To thicken or intensify the flavor of (a sauce, for example) by slow boiling.
Contract
Marriage as a formal agreement; betrothal.
Reduce
To lower the price of
The store has drastically reduced winter coats.
Contract
The last and highest bid of a suit in one hand in bridge.
Reduce
To decrease the viscosity of (paint, for example), as by adding a solvent.
Contract
The number of tricks thus bid.
Reduce
To put in a simpler or more systematic form; simplify or codify
Reduced her ideas to a collection of maxims.
Contract
Contract bridge.
Reduce
To turn into powder; pulverize.
Contract
A paid assignment to murder someone
Put out a contract on the mobster's life.
Reduce
To decrease the valence of (an atom) by adding electrons.
Contract
To enter into by contract; establish or settle by formal agreement
Contract a marriage.
Reduce
To remove oxygen from (a compound).
Contract
To acquire or incur
Contract obligations.
Contract a serious illness.
Reduce
To add hydrogen to (a compound).
Contract
To reduce in size by drawing together; shrink.
Reduce
To change to a metallic state by removing nonmetallic constituents; smelt.
Contract
To pull together; wrinkle.
Reduce
(Mathematics) To simplify the form of (an expression, such as a fraction) without changing the value.
Contract
(Grammar) To shorten (a word or words) by omitting or combining some of the letters or sounds, as do not to don't.
Reduce
(Medicine) To restore (a fractured or displaced body part) to a normal condition or position.
Contract
To enter into or make an agreement
Contract for garbage collection.
Reduce
(Linguistics) To pronounce (a stressed vowel) as the unstressed version of that vowel or as schwa.
Contract
To become reduced in size by or as if by being drawn together
The pupils of the patient's eyes contracted.
Reduce
To become diminished.
Contract
An agreement between two or more parties, to perform a specific job or work order, often temporary or of fixed duration and usually governed by a written agreement.
Marriage is a contract.
Sign a contract
Write up a contract
Read a contract
Countersign a contract
Legally-binding contract
Unwritten contract
Reduce
To lose weight, as by dieting.
Contract
(legal) An agreement which the law will enforce in some way. A legally binding contract must contain at least one promise, i.e., a commitment or offer, by an offeror to and accepted by an offeree to do something in the future. A contract is thus executory rather than executed.
Reduce
(Biology) To undergo meiosis.
Contract
(legal) The document containing such an agreement.
Reduce
(transitive) To bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower.
To reduce weight, speed, heat, expenses, price, personnel etc.
Contract
(legal) A part of legal studies dealing with laws and jurisdiction related to contracts.
Reduce
(intransitive) To lose weight.
Contract
(informal) An order, usually given to a hired assassin, to kill someone.
The mafia boss put a contract out on the man who betrayed him.
Reduce
(transitive) To bring to an inferior rank; to degrade, to demote.
To reduce a sergeant to the ranks
Contract
(bridge) The declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump.
Reduce
(transitive) To humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture.
To reduce a province or a fort
Contract
(obsolete) Contracted; affianced; betrothed.
Reduce
(transitive) To bring to an inferior state or condition.
To reduce a city to ashes
Contract
(obsolete) Not abstract; concrete.
Reduce
To decrease the liquid content of food by boiling much of its water off.
Contract
(ambitransitive) To draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen.
The snail’s body contracted into its shell.
To contract one’s sphere of action
Reduce
To add electrons / hydrogen or to remove oxygen.
Formaldehyde can be reduced to form methanol.
Contract
(grammar) To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.
The word “cannot” is often contracted into “can’t”.
Reduce
To produce metal from ore by removing nonmetallic elements in a smelter.
Contract
(transitive) To enter into a contract with. en
Reduce
To simplify an equation or formula without changing its value.
Contract
(transitive) To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.
Reduce
To express the solution of a problem in terms of another (known) algorithm.
Contract
(intransitive) To make an agreement or contract; to covenant; to agree; to bargain.
To contract for carrying the mail
Reduce
To convert a syllogism to a clearer or simpler form.
Contract
(transitive) To bring on; to incur; to acquire.
She contracted the habit of smoking in her teens.
To contract a debt
Reduce
To convert to written form. (Usage note: this verb almost always appears as "reduce to writing".)
It is important that all business contracts be reduced to writing.
Contract
(transitive) To gain or acquire (an illness).
Reduce
To perform a reduction; to restore a fracture or dislocation to the correct alignment.
Contract
To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
Reduce
To reform a line or column from (a square).
Contract
To betroth; to affiance.
Reduce
To strike off the payroll.
Contract
To draw together or nearer; to reduce to a less compass; to shorten, narrow, or lessen; as, to contract one's sphere of action.
In all things desuetude doth contract and narrow our faculties.
Reduce
To annul by legal means.
Contract
To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
Thou didst contract and purse thy brow.
Reduce
To translate (a book, document, etc.).
A book reduced into English
Contract
To bring on; to incur; to acquire; as, to contract a habit; to contract a debt; to contract a disease.
Each from each contract new strength and light.
Such behavior we contract by having much conversed with persons of high station.
Reduce
To bring or lead back to any former place or condition.
And to his brother's house reduced his wife.
The sheep must of necessity be scattered, unless the great Shephered of souls oppose, or some of his delegates reduce and direct us.
Contract
To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.
We have contracted an inviolable amity, peace, and lague with the aforesaid queen.
Many persons . . . had contracted marriage within the degrees of consanguinity . . . prohibited by law.
Reduce
To bring to any inferior state, with respect to rank, size, quantity, quality, value, etc.; to diminish; to lower; to degrade; to impair; as, to reduce a sergeant to the ranks; to reduce a drawing; to reduce expenses; to reduce the intensity of heat.
Nothing so excellent but a man may fasten upon something belonging to it, to reduce it.
Having reducedTheir foe to misery beneath their fears.
Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which she found the clergyman reduced.
Contract
To betroth; to affiance.
The truth is, she and I, long since contracted,Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve us.
Reduce
To bring to terms; to humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture; as, to reduce a province or a fort.
Contract
To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.
Reduce
To bring to a certain state or condition by grinding, pounding, kneading, rubbing, etc.; as, to reduce a substance to powder, or to a pasty mass; to reduce fruit, wood, or paper rags, to pulp.
It were but rightAnd equal to reduce me to my dust.
Contract
To be drawn together so as to be diminished in size or extent; to shrink; to be reduced in compass or in duration; as, iron contracts in cooling; a rope contracts when wet.
Years contracting to a moment.
Reduce
To bring into a certain order, arrangement, classification, etc.; to bring under rules or within certain limits of descriptions and terms adapted to use in computation; as, to reduce animals or vegetables to a class or classes; to reduce a series of observations in astronomy; to reduce language to rules.
Contract
To make an agreement; to covenant; to agree; to bargain; as, to contract for carrying the mail.
Reduce
To change, as numbers, from one denomination into another without altering their value, or from one denomination into others of the same value; as, to reduce pounds, shillings, and pence to pence, or to reduce pence to pounds; to reduce days and hours to minutes, or minutes to days and hours.
Contract
Contracted; as, a contract verb.
Reduce
To add an electron to an atom or ion.
Contract
Contracted; affianced; betrothed.
Reduce
To restore to its proper place or condition, as a displaced organ or part; as, to reduce a dislocation, a fracture, or a hernia.
Contract
The agreement of two or more persons, upon a sufficient consideration or cause, to do, or to abstain from doing, some act; an agreement in which a party undertakes to do, or not to do, a particular thing; a formal bargain; a compact; an interchange of legal rights.
Reduce
Cut down on; make a reduction in;
Reduce your daily fat intake
The employer wants to cut back health benefits
Contract
A formal writing which contains the agreement of parties, with the terms and conditions, and which serves as a proof of the obligation.
Reduce
Make less complex;
Reduce a problem to a single question
Contract
The act of formally betrothing a man and woman.
This is the the night of the contract.
Reduce
Bring to humbler or weaker state or condition;
He reduced the population to slavery
Contract
A binding agreement between two or more persons that is enforceable by law
Reduce
Simplify the form of a mathematical equation of expression by substituting one term for another
Contract
(contract bridge) the highest bid becomes the contract setting the number of tricks that the bidder must make
Reduce
Lower in grade or rank or force somebody into an undignified situation;
She reduced her niece to a servant
Contract
A variety of bridge in which the bidder receives points toward game only for the number of tricks he bid
Reduce
Be the essential element;
The proposal boils down to a compromise
Contract
Enter into a contractual arrangement
Reduce
Reduce in size; reduce physically;
Hot water will shrink the sweater
Can you shrink this image?
Contract
Engage by written agreement;
They signed two new pitchers for the next season
Reduce
Lessen and make more modest;
Reduce one's standard of living
Contract
Squeeze or press together;
She compressed her lips
The spasm contracted the muscle
Reduce
Make smaller;
Reduce an image
Contract
Become smaller or draw together;
The fabric shrank
The balloon shrank
Reduce
To remove oxygen from a compound, or cause to react with hydrogen or form a hydride, or to undergo an increase in the number of electrons
Contract
Be stricken by an illness, fall victim to an illness;
He got AIDS
She came down with pneumonia
She took a chill
Reduce
Narrow or limit;
Reduce the influx of foreigners
Contract
Make smaller;
The heat contracted the woollen garment
Reduce
Put down by force or intimidation;
The government quashes any attempt of an uprising
China keeps down her dissidents very efficiently
The rich landowners subjugated the peasants working the land
Contract
Compress or concentrate;
Congress condensed the three-year plan into a six-month plan
Reduce
Undergo meiosis;
The cells reduce
Contract
Make or become more narrow or restricted;
The selection was narrowed
The road narrowed
Reduce
Reposition (a broken bone after surgery) back to its normal site
Contract
Reduce in scope while retaining essential elements;
The manuscript must be shortened
Reduce
Reduce in scope while retaining essential elements;
The manuscript must be shortened
Contract
Enforced by law.
Breaching the contract can lead to substantial legal penalties.
Reduce
Be cooked until very little liquid is left;
The sauce should reduce to one cup
Contract
Often requires witnesses or notarization.
The contract was notarized to ensure its legality.
Reduce
Cook until very little liquid is left;
The cook reduced the sauce by boiling it for a long time
Reduce
Lessen the strength or flavor of a solution or mixture;
Cut bourbon
Reduce
Take off weight
Reduce
To make smaller in size or amount.
The company plans to reduce its workforce by 10%.
Reduce
Lowering intensity or importance.
They reduced the price to attract more customers.
Reduce
Simplifying or minimizing.
Reduce the sauce for another ten minutes to thicken it.
Reduce
Decreasing numerical value.
They reduced the error rate in data entry significantly.
Reduce
In cooking, to concentrate flavor by boiling.
Reduce the broth until it is halved in volume.
Common Curiosities
What is a contract?
A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties with defined obligations and rights.
Why are contracts important in business?
Contracts provide a secure framework that defines and protects the rights and responsibilities of all parties involved.
What does it mean to reduce something?
To reduce something means to decrease its size, amount, or importance.
What are some common reasons for reducing staff?
Common reasons include cutting costs, organizational restructuring, or changes in business strategy.
How can a process be reduced effectively?
Effective reduction often involves analyzing and streamlining operations to eliminate unnecessary components.
Can contracts be modified?
Yes, contracts can be modified if all parties involved agree to the changes.
What are the risks of reducing product quality?
Reducing quality can lead to customer dissatisfaction, decreased sales, and a tarnished brand reputation.
How does reducing costs benefit a company?
Reducing costs can increase profitability and provide more flexibility in financial management.
What is required for a contract to be valid?
A valid contract typically requires an offer, acceptance, intent, and consideration (something of value).
Can a contract be oral?
Yes, contracts can be oral unless specifically required by law to be in writing, such as real estate transactions.
What happens if a contract is breached?
Breaching a contract can lead to legal repercussions, including penalties or mandatory performance.
What techniques are used to reduce errors in a process?
Techniques include implementing quality control systems, training, and continuous process improvement.
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Written by
Fiza RafiqueFiza Rafique is a skilled content writer at AskDifference.com, where she meticulously refines and enhances written pieces. Drawing from her vast editorial expertise, Fiza ensures clarity, accuracy, and precision in every article. Passionate about language, she continually seeks to elevate the quality of content for readers worldwide.
Co-written by
Urooj ArifUrooj is a skilled content writer at Ask Difference, known for her exceptional ability to simplify complex topics into engaging and informative content. With a passion for research and a flair for clear, concise writing, she consistently delivers articles that resonate with our diverse audience.
