✅ Aid and assist are both more formal and less personal words than help and imply the furthering of another’s efforts (Please assist him with the paperwork; The tea aids in digestion).
✅ Assist is better than aid when there is less need for help (assist clients; assist in planning).
✅ Aid works best when an entity like a government is helping someone or providing support for an endeavor (aid the development of programs; aid the poor).
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✅ Crucial is the perfect word when discussing an extremely important decision or turning point (crucial moment; crucial issue).
✅ Crucial is sometimes interchangeable with important in situations in which the stakes are not life-and-death (The title is crucial to the success of a book).
✅ While important is more general and often appears with intensifiers like terribly and vitally, crucial is more intense on its own.
Something that is convivial is friendly and agreeable, or festive. Convivial is a warm and social term; it's most often used to talk about gatherings of people who are in high spirits and enjoying one another's company, often sharing in a meal or refreshments. Its gregarious nature makes sense given its origin: convivial comes from the Latin noun meaning "feast." When describing a person, convivial means "merry company, jovial." Convivial is good company any time of year, but given its appetite for feasting and gathering, it's no wonder we hear convivial a little more around the holidays!