aid
verb (used with object)
to provide support for or relief to; help.
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aid
1 American
[ayd]
/ eɪd /
verb (used with object)
-
aids,
present (3rd person singular)
-
aided,
past participle, past
-
aiding
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
aids,
present (3rd person singular)
-
aided,
past participle, past
-
aiding
present participle
noun
-
aids
plural
-
help or support; assistance.
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a person or thing that aids or furnishes assistance; helper; auxiliary.
-
Manège. aids,
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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.
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Also called artificial aids. the devices used by a rider to increase control of a horse, as spurs, whip, and martingale.
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a payment made by feudal vassals to their lord on special occasions.
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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.
AID
2
American
[ayd]
/ eɪd /
noun
U.S. Government.
AID
3
American
abbreviation
-
American Institute of Decorators.
-
American Institute of Interior Designers.
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British. artificial insemination donor. Also A.I.D.
aid
1
British
/ eɪd /
verb
-
to give support to (someone to do something); help or assist
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(tr) to assist financially
noun
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assistance; help; support
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a person, device, etc, that helps or assists
a teaching aid
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Also: artificial aid. mountaineering any of various devices such as piton or nut when used as a direct help in the ascent
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(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
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informal in support of; for the purpose of
AID
2
British
abbreviation
-
acute infectious disease
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artificial insemination (by) donor: former name for Donor Insemination (DI)
Aid
3
British
combining form
Commonly Confused
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.
Synonym Usage
See help.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
aidsimple
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aidssimple
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have aidedperfect
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has aidedperfect
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am aidingprogressive
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are aidingprogressive
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is aidingprogressive
-
have been aidingperfect progressive
-
has been aidingperfect progressive
Past
-
aidedsimple
-
had aidedperfect
-
was aidingprogressive
-
were aidingprogressive
-
had been aidingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of aid1
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. )
Origin of AID2
A(gency for) I(nternational) D(evelopment)
Explanation
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.
Vocabulary lists containing aid
Giving Words
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The Syrian Refugee Crisis Continues
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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:
The Yemen conflict has also caused a dire humanitarian crisis that left most of the nation's population dependent on aid.
From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026
Roughly 0.3% of students receiving federal financial aid are in failing bachelor’s-degree programs and 0.2% of student loan volume is in these programs, according to PEER.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026
Stefan Oelrich, the president of Bayer’s pharma division, told The Wall Street Journal earlier this year that the company was looking at expanding its U.S. manufacturing footprint to aid its turnaround plan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
"Together with deliveries of humanitarian aid and medical supplies, we'd go and do business in Cuba right away," says Sixto.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
“Funyuns? Even if I knew where you could find a bag, I wouldn’t tell you. I refuse to aid in your culinary demise,” I reply.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
"Deploying Artificial Intelligence in Services to AID Vulnerable Consumers" is published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 18, 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
By contrast, the AID equates inequality with heterogeneity in educational attainment within a population.
From Nature ● Apr. 14, 2020
By midmorning, a line snaked out the door of AID Atlanta’s Midtown clinic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2019
“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
Aid workers have witnessed such events, and in at least one case filmed them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
Aid Worker Security Database, whose figures have been cited by the UN and UK government, told BBC Verify it has recorded 22 aid workers killed in Gaza since 10 October 2025.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
The account was relayed by the organization Whistleblower Aid, which said it represents the anonymous whistleblower.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026
Aid agencies warn that displacement can create additional risks for women and girls because of overcrowding, shared facilities and loss of privacy.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
The local saloons and other businesses formed a Stockyards Aid Society, and relief stations distributed groceries to those families nearing starvation.
From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield
Sleeping better — or getting hearing aids or cataract surgery — won’t immunize you from all types of fraud.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026
While others with hearing disorders can perceive certain low-frequency vibrations as sound, for Pride almost everything is completely inaudible without powerful hearing aids.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026
Tongue's position on the crease also aids him in his speciality of targeting the stumps.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
The publication dinged the compact SUV for its lack of driving aids.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
But considering the lilies as we might, our trimming back got us nowhere close to our goal, even without Rachel’s beauty aids.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
But the company’s product sales have been aided over the past 25 years by the presence of its iconic brand in more than 500 retail stores scattered across 27 countries and regions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
The Rams’ pass rush will be aided by the addition of lineman Aaron Donald, the three-time NFL defensive player of the year who will make his season debut after coming out of two-year retirement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026
The new hack joins a long list of recent disclosures by leading technology companies and researchers alike of cyber intrusions aided by fast-evolving artificial-intelligence tools.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
The first leg of yen strength was driven by a BoJ rate hike and a round of government intervention aided by the U.S.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
For a long time, no one knew how Washington the spymaster had aided Washington the general.
From "George Washington, Spymaster" by Thomas B. Allen
He argues the technology could modernize court infrastructure, aiding in case management, scheduling and document processing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Four of those charges were of aiding and abetting the offending committed by her husband Jeffrey Donaldson.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
These companies might be working on their own assistants, and a Siri integration could be seen as aiding and abetting the competition.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
More than 2,000 people are aiding rescue operations, including soldiers, Xinhua added.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
Also aiding our cause was my work on tobacco mosaic virus.
From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson
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.
