alter vs reduce

alter

verb
  • To change the form or structure of. 

  • To castrate, neuter or spay (a dog or other animal). 

  • To tailor clothes to make them fit. 

  • To become different. 

  • To affect mentally, as by psychotropic drugs or illness. 

noun
  • An identity or headmate of a person with dissociative identity disorder (previously known as multiple personality disorder). A member of a system. 

reduce

verb
  • To convert a syllogism to a clearer or simpler form. 

  • To annul by legal means. 

  • To convert to written form. (Usage note: this verb almost always appears as "reduce to writing".) 

  • To lose weight. 

  • To perform a reduction; to restore a fracture or dislocation to the correct alignment. 

  • To bring to an inferior state or condition. 

  • To simplify an equation or formula without changing its value. 

  • To bring to an inferior rank; to degrade, to demote. 

  • To add electrons / hydrogen or to remove oxygen. 

  • To humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture. 

  • To bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower. 

  • To strike off the payroll. 

  • To decrease the liquid content of food by boiling much of its water off. 

  • To produce metal from ore by removing nonmetallic elements in a smelter. 

  • To express the solution of a problem in terms of another (known) algorithm. 

  • To reform a line or column from (a square). 

How often have the words alter and reduce occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )