What does help mean?
Help is a central English word for assistance that reduces difficulty, supplies information, or enables action. As a verb, it commonly takes an object: “Can you help me?” It can also introduce someone’s doing of something, as in “She helped me learn the system.” The construction “cannot help” followed by a gerund expresses an inability to prevent an action: “I could not help laughing.” As a noun, help may be uncountable, as in “thank you for your help,” or refer to a person or thing that provides support, as in “She was a constant help to the team.” The interjection “Help!” signals distress or requests assistance. Help is broadly neutral in register and is used in both formal and informal settings. Its standard pronunciation and usage are essentially the same in British and American English. The word is also unusually durable: it descends from Old English and has generated familiar derivatives including helper, helpful, and helpless.
Assistance, support, or an action that makes a task easier; a person or thing that provides such aid.
"With a little help, she was able to finish the repairs."
Help is often uncountable, although a countable use is possible when referring to a particular source of assistance.
To assist someone or make a task easier, and to enable someone to do something.
"The volunteers helped families find shelter during the storm."
The phrase “cannot help” followed by a gerund means “be unable to prevent”: “He cannot help worrying about the result.”
A cry used to summon assistance or signal distress.
"Help! The gate has started to close."
This use is emphatic and normally denotes an immediate need for assistance.
The plural is grammatically possible but uncommon; most uses of the noun are uncountable.
"She listed the practical helps she had received from her neighbours."
Old English helpan has survived for roughly a thousand years with remarkably little change in either its form or its core meaning.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does help come from?
Help comes from Old English helpan, “to aid or assist,” and was inherited through Proto-Germanic *helpōną. The English family includes helper, helpful, and helpless, preserving the ideas of giving assistance or being without assistance. Related forms in other Germanic languages include German helfen, Dutch helpen, and Old Norse hjálpa.
Related word forms
How help is actually used
Help is neutral in register and is used extensively in formal, professional, and informal contexts. The construction “help someone (to) do something” is common, while “cannot help” followed by a gerund means that the action cannot be prevented: “I cannot help worrying.” British and American usage differ little.
Easily confused with help
Helpful describes a person or thing that provides assistance, whereas help is the assistance itself or the act of providing it.
Helpless describes someone unable to help or defend themselves, whereas help is the aid that person may require.