helpful

[help-fuhl]

adjective

1. giving or rendering aid or assistance; of service.

   Your comments were very helpful.

   Synonyms: advantageous, beneficial, convenient, useful
   Antonyms: inconvenient, useless

helpful

/ ˈhɛlpfʊl /

adjective

1. serving a useful function; giving help

Other Word Forms

• helpfully adverb
• helpfulness noun
• overhelpful adjective
• overhelpfully adverb
• overhelpfulness noun
• quasi-helpful adjective
• quasi-helpfully adverb
• unhelpful adjective
• unhelpfully adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of helpful¹

First recorded in 1300–50; help + -ful

Example Sentences

Roz wanted more of those helpful creatures on the farm, so she let the unused sections of land go wild.

Read more on Literature

In particular, it’s become helpful in tracking down information for journal entries, such as accruals for revenue and expenses, that are eventually tallied up on the balance sheet, ON Semiconductor’s Trent said.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

"The Scottish space sector is growing at a really quick rate, so the skills I've learned here are going to be really helpful going forward," says Millie.

Read more on BBC

It then listed foods that might help, starting with meats, followed by three helpful bullet points.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The Paragon Institute offers a helpful chart showing that expiring pandemic subsidies are responsible for about 3% of total 2026 premiums.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• accessible 
• advantageous 
• applicable 
• conducive 
• constructive 
• convenient 
• cooperative 
• crucial 
• essential 
• favorable 
• friendly 
• important 
• invaluable 
• practical 
• productive 
• profitable 
• significant 
• suitable 
• supportive 
• sympathetic