help or support; assistance.
a person or thing that aids or furnishes assistance; helper; auxiliary.
Manège. aids,
Also called natural aids. the means by which a rider communicates with and controls a horse, as the hands, legs, voice, and shifts in weight.
Also called artificial aids. the devices used by a rider to increase control of a horse, as spurs, whip, and martingale.
a payment made by feudal vassals to their lord on special occasions.
English History. (after 1066) any of several revenues received by a king in the Middle Ages from his vassals and other subjects, limited by the Magna Charta to specified occasions.
American Institute of Decorators.
American Institute of Interior Designers.
British. artificial insemination donor. Also A.I.D.
to give support to (someone to do something); help or assist
(tr) to assist financially
assistance; help; support
a person, device, etc, that helps or assists
a teaching aid
Also: artificial aid. mountaineering any of various devices such as piton or nut when used as a direct help in the ascent
(in medieval Europe; in England after 1066) a feudal payment made to the king or any lord by his vassals, usually on certain occasions such as the marriage of a daughter or the knighting of an eldest son
informal in support of; for the purpose of
acute infectious disease
artificial insemination (by) donor: former name for Donor Insemination (DI)
Although the nouns aid and aide both have among their meanings “an assisting person,” the spelling aide is increasingly used for the sense “helper, assistant”: One of the senator's aides is calling. Aide in military use is short for aide-de-camp. It is also the spelling in nurse's aide.
See help.
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English noun aide, eide, from Anglo-French, Old French aide, derivative of verb aid(i)er, from Latin adjūtāre “to help”; see also adjuvant ( def. )
A(gency for) I(nternational) D(evelopment)
Aid is what you do when you help someone — you come to their aid. Rich countries provide economic aid to poor countries, and if you cut your hand, you'll be looking in the first aid kit for a Band-Aid. You can also use aid as a verb: "The librarian will aid you in your search." English has some words with meanings related to aid, but they're spelled with an -e on the end, because they come from the French. A nurse's aide is someone who assists a nurse. An aide-de-camp is a close assistant and confidant to a military officer, a word often shortened to just aide, to refer to an assistant to a political official.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She said she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s after a trip to the Mayo Clinic and underwent treatment and started taking medication to aid with her symptoms.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
Able to give out his address, officers who were first on the scene climbed over the back gate and started giving Stacey first aid, with paramedics arriving soon after.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
The whistles and the mutual aid networks demonstrated that it did not.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
The state also received hundreds of billions of federal Covid dollars in government aid, rental assistance, public transportation and more.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
They also aid in creating positive and interesting lessons that fully engage the student.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
To support this future research, the team seeks long-term, open-access AID datasets that include a wide range of sensor measurements of possible factors and a diverse cohort of people with T1D.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 27, 2024
AID official, was in East Africa to pledge aid to help the region’s fight against hunger amid a devastating multi-year drought.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 27, 2022
Percentages of employees asking for exemptions also vary, from 10.2 percent at the Department of Veterans Affairs to 1.3 percent at AID and the State Department.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 24, 2021
When education is concentrated in the hands of the few, the AID is low because most people have the same low level of educational attainment.
From Nature ● Apr. 14, 2020
“Can you believe they even gave her that AID virus and injected her into monkeys?”
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
There may be something similar with Judge Montgomery-Reeves: She worked closely with the Legal Aid Society’s Prisoners’ Rights project for several years, and I think that may have imparted a civil libertarian streak.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026
The Office of Federal Student Aid argues that a high nonpayment rate represents a “serious risk” of developing a high default rate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
On Aug. 5, New York will become the 14th U.S. state to legalize Medical Aid in Dying, or MAID.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026
A spokesperson from Welsh Women's Aid said "this form of covert surveillance can strip away a person's sense of privacy and safety".
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
Let me qualify my previous statement: It was next to impossible for me to get fired from Smart Aid.
From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs
The technology's adaptability to different kinds of problems sets it apart from previous waves of computerised aids.
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
When he recently took his in-laws to get fitted for new hearing aids, he popped open his laptop and used a hot spot to send emails and edit video in time to meet a deadline.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026
He was becoming profoundly deaf and now sported bright pink hearing aids, but his work had made him wealthy.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
When hearing loss in middle age drove him to rely on hearing aids, he credited the affliction with sharpening his awareness of the world around him—and enhancing his art.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
It is also related to certain pneumonia viruses: to the parainfluenza virus, which causes colds in children, and to the respiratory syncytial virus, which can cause fatal pneumonia in a person who has aids.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
After immigration agents began arresting people in courthouses, many immigrants grew wary of showing up for court proceedings, which has aided the increase in removal orders.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
The company is targeting a net debt of $14 billion to $18 billion by end 2027, which will be aided by a $20 billion divestment program.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
Swedish buyout group EQT said it enters the second half of the year with strong fundraising momentum, after it reported rises in net profit and revenue for the first half aided by higher fee-generating assets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Hundreds of French firefighters aided by water bombers on Tuesday battled wildfires that have ravaged a hugely popular forest outside Paris as another scorching heatwave keeps the capital in its grip.
From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026
It was Mudd’s hope that George would act as a go-between, alerting the police to the fact that his Good Samaritan cousin might just have “accidentally” aided the men who killed Lincoln.
From "Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever" by Bill O'Reilly
In April, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked in a Senate hearing whether Russia was aiding Iran.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
Two days after the blaze at Lineage Logistics’ cold storage facility ignited on June 17, Robb began working for the company, aiding with communications consulting, he confirmed to The Times.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
Although this latest trial has shown it is superior for controlling blood sugar and aiding weight loss, its higher rate of side-effects and treatment discontinuation may temper enthusiasm.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 8, 2026
For one — and “most critical historically,” according to Deutsche Bank — the U.S. benefited from 200 years of institutional and political stability that helped shore up confidence in its capital markets, aiding economic growth.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 28, 2026
Officer David Delinko had stopped on his way home from the police station, where he’d received another commendation from the chief—this time for aiding in the recapture of Dana Matherson.
From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
