Taxonomy of meanings for 減:　　

  • 減 xiàn (OC: ɡroomʔ MC: ɦɯæm) 下斬切 上 廣韻：【減耗又古斬切 】
  • 減 jiǎn (OC: kroomʔ MC: kɯæm) 古斬切 上 廣韻：【損也又姓漢有減宣 】
    • FEW
      • vt+prep+Nless than N
      • vtoNcausative(cause to be less>) reduce
      • vtoNgradedbe less than
    • REDUCE
      • nabprocesseconomy; reduction, decreasing, diminishing
      • viprocessdecrease (sometimes "in relation to")
      • vt+prep+Npassiveget reduced to, be diminished to
      • vtoNreduce, lessen
      • vtoNmathematical termCHEMLA 2003: subtract
      • vtoNpassiveget reduced; get less
    • DECLINE
      • DIVIDE
        • INFERIOR
          • MATHEMATICS
            • RIVERS

              Additional information about 減

              說文解字: 【減】，損也。从水、咸聲。 【古斬切】

                Criteria
              • REDUCE

                1. The current general word for diminishing or lessening anything in any way is sǔn 損 (ant. yì 益 "increase, improve")..

                2. Kuī 虧 (ant. yíng 盈 "cause to become more plentiful") refers to impairing a typically abstract or at least subtle thing.

                3. Jiǎn 減 (ant. zēng 增 "increase") typically refers to a reduction in the intensitity or in the number of something.

                4. Shǎo 少 is used to refer to the reducing the number of things. See FEW

              • INCREASE

                1. The most current and most general word for increase, both abstract and concrete is yì 益 (ant. sǔn 損 "decrease"). See MORE which overlaps considerably with this group.

                2. Zī 滋 is an archaic but not uncommon word referring to an overall natural increase or growth in quantity of something, but the most current use of the word is adverbial in the sense "increasing naturally".

                3. Zé1ng 增 (ant. shǎo 少 "beocme less") typically refers to concrete or material increase of something.

                4. Jiā 加 (ant. jiǎn 減 "decrease by taking away") typically focusses on the action of adding something which brings about the increase.

              • FEW

                1. The current general word referring to the relatively small number or the small amount of something is shǎo 少 (ant. duō 多 "many, much").

                2. Guǎ 寡 (ant. zhòng 眾 "numerous" and occasionally also duō 多 "large in quantity") typically refers specifically humans not being numerous as opposed to larger groups of humans, but the word comes to refer also to any quantity being relatively large ( 五穀多寡 "the relative abundance of grain") and I have not found a systematic difference in nuance with shǎo 少 when the word is so used, except for the generally subjective intuition that guǎ 寡 being the dominant word in early times, perhaps retained a somewhat more dignified stylistic value throughout.

                3. Fá 乏 and kuì 匱 (ant. zú 足 "enough") refer specifically to the shortage of something one definitely needs more of.

                4. Xī 希 / 稀 and the more archaic xiǎn 鮮 refers to sparsity of distribution.

                5. Jiǎn 減 (ant. zēng 增 "increase") refers specifically to the reduction of the amount of the number of something. See also DIMINISH.

                Word relations
              • Ant: (REDUCE)加/INCREASE Jiā 加 (ant. jiǎn 減 "decrease by taking away") typically focusses on the action of adding something which brings about the increase.
              • Ant: (REDUCE)增 / 曾/INCREASE Zēng 增 (ant. shǎo 少 "beocme less") typically refers to concrete or material increase of something.
              • Assoc: (REDUCE)損/REDUCE The current general word for diminishing or lessening anything in any way is sǔn 損 (ant. yì 益 "increase, improve")..