sustains

Sustains is the third-person singular present tense form of the verb sustain. It is used to indicate that a subject maintains, supports, endures, or preserves something. The term appears across many domains, including everyday language, law, and policy, where a subject sustains a practice, relationship, or condition.

In music and acoustics, sustain refers to the portion of a sound that remains audible after the initial attack. The verb form is used in sentences such as “the instrument sustains the note,” and in electronic instruments the sustain parameter or pedal controls how long the sound is held after the attack and decay stages. In this context, sustains can describe the ongoing resonance or the continued vibration of a sound.

Beyond music, sustains commonly appear in discussions of life, livelihoods, or structures. To sustain something means to keep it going or to prevent it from failing—for example, policies that sustain economic growth or efforts to sustain biodiversity. The related noun sustainment and the adjective sustainable are often used in environmental, social, and economic discourse.

Etymology traces sustain to Latin sustinere, meaning to hold up or endure, via Old French and Middle English developments. The word has broadened over time from physical support to more abstract forms of maintenance and continuity. Related terms include sustenance, sustainability, and sustaining.

See also sustenance, sustainability, sustaining.