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help

[help] / hɛlp /
NOUN
assistance, relief
Synonyms
STRONGEST
advice aid benefit comfort cooperation guidance hand service support use
STRONG
assist avail balm corrective cure lift maintenance nourishment remedy succor sustenance utility
WEAK
helping hand
Antonyms
STRONGEST
blockage encumbrance handicap hindrance hurt injury obstruction prevention
STRONG
disease
WEAK
check counteraction harm stop
NOUN
someone employed, usually as a servant or manual laborer.
Synonyms
STRONGEST
domestic employee hand helper hired help hired man servant staff worker
WEAK
assistant
Antonyms
STRONG
boss manager
WEAK
management
VERB
aid, assist
Synonyms
STRONGEST
back benefit bolster boost cooperate encourage further maintain promote push save serve stimulate support
STRONG
abet accommodate advocate ballyhoo befriend cheer endorse hype intercede patronize plug prop puff relieve sanction second succor sustain uphold
WEAK
be of use buck up do a favor do a service do one's part go to bat for go with lend a hand open doors root for see through stand by stick up for stump for take under one's wing work for
Antonyms
STRONGEST
block condemn delay depress discourage dissuade halt harm hinder hurt impede neglect obstruct prevent refuse stop undermine
STRONG
conceal disapprove frustrate hide ignore oppose protest
WEAK
check counteract decrease injure worsen
VERB
improve
Synonyms
STRONGEST
alleviate ease facilitate restore revive treat
STRONG
ameliorate amend attend better cure doctor heal meliorate mitigate nourish palliate relieve remedy
Antonyms
STRONGEST
destroy hurt increase
STRONG
accuse blame condemn depress harm injure neglect worsen
WEAK
block check counteract decrease hinder obstruct stop

Frequently Asked Questions

What is another word for help?
A close synonym of the verb sense of help is assist. Assist can mean the same thing as help, but it can imply that the assistance is only part of the help being offered. The informal term lend a hand (in which a hand means assistance) often means the same thing. Some close synonyms for help can be used as a noun or as a verb: aid and support. Each can have different shades of meaning. Aid is more formal, and it’s often used in the context of serious situations. Support can be used in different ways. It often emphasizes the fact that the person being helped is not alone. Other synonyms for help are more specific. Guide means to help someone with a task or activity as they do it by providing guidance along the way—which is a bit more hands-on than advising (giving advice). Relief is often used in the context of helping those who are desperately in need, as in Multiple agencies are working to provide relief to those affected by the hurricane. Many of the noun synonyms of help can be used with the word provide to create synonyms of the verb sense: provide assistance, provide aid, provide support (and of course provide help). Sometimes, help means the same thing as facilitate, further, promote, or foster, as This legislation will help economic growth.
What is a fancier word for help?
Help is a very common word. Much less common terms that can mean the same thing are succor and abet. Succor can be used as a noun or a verb—and it can also refer to a person who provides help. It can sound a bit literary or formal—it’s probably most commonly encountered in older literature. Abet is most commonly used in the context of assisting someone with a crime—particularly in the phrase aid and abet.
What are some synonyms for other forms of help?
What is another word for helping? Helping describes giving aid, help, and support. Synonyms for this include assisting, guiding, and advising. Assisting suggests that you’re giving consistent or formalised support. Essentially, it implies that it’s part of your role to help out, where helping suggests that the help was optional. Guiding suggests that you’re more experienced than the person you’re helping, and you’re helping them to gain experience or improve. Advising also suggests that you know more than the person you’re helping, but in this case you’re offering advice when it’s needed. You might not have a hands-on role, but your advice is important. What is another word for helpful? If someone is helpful, you might describe them instead as supportive, friendly, useful, valuable or accommodating. Useful and valuable are most often used in workplaces to describe people, and you wouldn’t usually describe your friend that way. Supportive, friendly, and accommodating can be used in a wider variety of situations. Accommodating suggests that someone is understanding about your needs or requests, and will change things around to make you comfortable. If something is helpful—say advice, or a certain tool—you might describe it as beneficial or invaluable. Beneficial means that it offers a benefit, and invaluable means that it’s beyond valuable—that it’s important or necessary. What is another word for helper? A helper is an assistant. They might be an apprentice if they’re helping you in order to learn a trade or profession. If you’re a supervillain, they might be a henchman. They might be your subordinate, your deputy, or your right-hand-man. What can you say instead of helping others? There’s no direct synonym for the phrase helping others, but depending on the circumstances, you could use giving advice, having a support role or offering guidance. Have a think about what kind of help you’re offering, and once you’ve found a more specific word you can build your own phrase around that! What is another word for helpfulness? Instead of helpfulness, you can use usefulness, assistance, or help.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

“We’ve had so many supporters and people who have donated to help this out … and it’s been an incredible experience. Very, very fulfilling.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026

The Guardian reports internships designed to secure work for young people with special needs should be put on "turbocharge" to help tackle the youth job crisis.

From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026

After Báez hit his first homer, Marmol couldn’t help but notice the look on his face.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

Military helicopters backed by tractors on the ground hauled water Sunday to help firefighters tame Belgium's largest modern-day wildfire, which mushroomed in size since breaking out two days earlier in a hard-to-access nature reserve.

From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026

“There are foundations for the study of cancer and tuberculosis, but for three thousand years lepers have been the outcast. Men flee from them and will not help them.”

From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly

Meta’s gigantic “Hyperion” data-center project in Louisiana, which is the size of about 1,700 football fields, helps explain how big obligations wind up off tech companies’ balance sheets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

Access to instant cash helps banks withstand runs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

So exercise helps gets this fluid, and the nutrients it contains, to cartilage.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026

That group could even include several athletes who received grants from her nonprofit Stronger Than You Think, which helps provide prosthetics to girls and women experiencing limb loss.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026

As if that helps makes sense of anything.

From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith

That reality has helped push Gulf states to support even unfavorable deals that would acknowledge Iranian oversight of the strait if it stops further escalation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

He has made 256 appearances and helped the club end their 30-year trophy drought by winning the Europa League in May.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

Especially when I realized that what was in the bowl had begun as a five-item farmers market haul, helped along by a few things I already had at home.

From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026

A surprise build in U.S. commercial crude inventories also helped keep oil futures in check last week.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 16, 2026

I helped her up on the board to show all the watching eyes I wasn’t entirely useless.

From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck

Good judicial picks can build on one another, by helping to open new vacancies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

Monahan described the soldiers as "doing an utterly phenomenal job digging trenches and also helping us build fire breaks".

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

Scattering straw between vines, known as mulching, is not new, but what has changed is its purpose: from improving general soil health to helping vineyards withstand a warming climate.

From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026

Evolutionary theory therefore proposed that females might sometimes gain a greater evolutionary advantage by helping raise their sisters than by producing offspring of their own.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026

Jonah and I have spent the last few weekends here, helping Dad fix up a couple of units on the fourth floor.

From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam

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