RELIANCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does reliance mean? 

• RELIANCE (noun)
  The noun RELIANCE has 2 senses:

1. certainty based on past experience

2. the state of relying on something

  Familiarity information: RELIANCE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RELIANCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Certainty based on past experience

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

reliance; trust

Context example:

he put more trust in his own two legs than in the gun

Hypernyms ("reliance" is a kind of...):

certainty (the state of being certain)

Derivation:

rely (have faith or confidence in)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The state of relying on something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("reliance" is a kind of...):

dependance; dependence; dependency (the state of relying on or being controlled by someone or something else)

Derivation:

reliant (relying on another for support)

rely (have faith or confidence in)

 Context examples 

“Now, my reliance is on you.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Jane was not deceived, but she was affected; and though feeling no reliance on her, could not help writing her a much kinder answer than she knew was deserved.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Badyaev and co-authors showed that the way biochemical processes are structured in birds holds the key to understanding how species gain and lose their reliance on others in their communities.

(Colorful bird feathers offer evolutionary clues, National Science Foundation)

Producing sorgoleone in other crops would potentially give those plants the ability to fight weeds and reduce reliance on synthetic herbicides.

(Transferring Sorghum’s Weed-Killing Power to Rice, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

The researchers attribute the reduced fruit quality to the apple flower’s reliance on a variety of pollination techniques and behaviors that a diverse bee community provides.

(Diverse Bee Communities Best for Apple Orchards, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

Catherine's answer was only “Oh!”—but it was an “Oh!” expressing everything needful: attention to his words, and perfect reliance on their truth.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

She spilled her food from her spoon, and could place no reliance in her afflicted arm.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Her sorrow, her disappointment, her deep regret, when I told her that I was obliged to leave Devonshire so immediately—I never shall forget it—united too with such reliance, such confidence in me!

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Her mind, disposition, opinions, and habits wanted no half-concealment, no self-deception on the present, no reliance on future improvement.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

"Complementing evidence in humans and Old World monkeys, we suggest that reliance on scent signals to communicate MHC quality may be important across the primate lineage," say the researchers.

(Lemurs can smell whether a mate's immune genes are a good match, National Science Foundation)