Meaning & use
sustained
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a noun
Carried on steadily for a long time without stopping or becoming weaker.
Grammar: Usually before a noun: sustained effort, sustained growth.
Patterns
- sustained effort
- sustained attack
The region enjoyed sustained economic growth for a decade.
Winning the marathon requires sustained effort over months.
The hospital faced a sustained attack on its budget.
verbtransitive
Past tense and past participle of sustain: kept something going, or suffered harm or injury.
Grammar: Takes an object: he sustained a broken arm.
Patterns
- sustained an injury
- sustained a loss
She sustained a minor injury in the fall.
The building sustained heavy damage in the storm.
The wooden beams sustained the weight of the roof.
Word forms
| base form | sustain |
|---|---|
| -ing form | sustaining |
Common combinations
- sustained growth
- The firm reported sustained growth for five years.
- sustained effort
- Learning a language takes sustained effort.
- sustained applause
- The pianist received sustained applause.
- sustained attention
- Young children find sustained attention difficult.
- sustained period
- Prices rose over a sustained period.
Synonyms and how they differ
- continuous
- Continuous says only that something does not stop, while sustained adds the idea of keeping up strength or quality.
- prolonged
- Prolonged stresses that something lasts too long and can sound negative, whereas sustained is often neutral or positive.
- steady
- Steady emphasizes evenness, and sustained emphasizes lasting a long time.
- persistent
- Persistent suggests refusing to stop, often something unwelcome, while sustained is neutral.
Opposites
Word family
- sustain verb
- to keep going, support or suffer
- sustainable adjective
- able to continue without harming resources
- sustainability noun
- the ability to continue over time
- sustenance noun
- food or support that keeps one alive
Commonly confused: sustained or sustainable?
sustained vs sustainable
Sustainable means able to be kept up without damage, while sustained means actually continued over a long period.
Practice
After weeks of ____ pressure from voters, the council finally changed the policy.
Choose one answer.
Sustained pressure is pressure kept up over time. Brief and random cannot explain weeks of pressure, and faint would not force a change.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “sustained”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.