decrease、diminish、lessen、reduce与dwindle这些动词的共同含义是“减少、变少”。
decrease : 指逐渐地、不断地减少。
- Our share of the market has decreased sharply this year.
今年我们的市场份额急剧下降。 - We have decreased our involvement in children's books.
我们减少了在儿童读物方面的投入。
diminish : 侧重大小数量和重要性的不断减小，强调减小的部分。
- I don't want to diminish her achievements, but she did have a lot of help.
我不想贬低她的成就，但她确实得到了很多帮助。 - These memories will not be diminished by time.
这些记忆不会随着时间的流逝而淡漠。
lessen : 普通用词，与decrease近义。指数目、程度、价值、实力等的减少。
- A healthy diet can lessen the risk of heart disease.
健康饮食能降低患心脏病的危险。 - The noise began to lessen.
噪音开始减弱。
reduce : 普通用词，含义广。指数量、程度的降低或减少。
- Do nuclear weapons really reduce the risk of war?
核武器真的可以减小战争爆发的危险吗？ - The plane reduced speed as it approached the airport.
当飞临机场时，飞机减慢了速度。
dwindle与decrease同义，指逐渐减小，但强调变得越来越少终至全无。
- The community has dwindled to a tenth of its former size in the last two years.
该社区在过去的两年里缩小到了原来的1/10。 - Her hopes of success in the race dwindled last night as the weather became worse.
随着昨晚天气的恶化，她在比赛中获胜的希望减小了。
