aid

The word “aid” means to help or support someone, or to make something easier. In plain terms, to help, or the help itself — used for everything from first aid to foreign aid.

“Aid” is pronounced ayd (/eɪd/ in IPA).

Here is “aid” used in a sentence: “Volunteers arrived to aid the flood victims.”

Words with a similar meaning to “aid” include assist, befriend, bestand, cooperate, help and promote.

Depending on how it is used, “aid” can be a verb and a noun.

The word “aid” comes from Latin. From Old French aidier, aider, from Latin adiutare, "to assist repeatedly.".

“Aid” is a very common word in modern English, usually learned at around the B1 level.

“Aid” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: to help or support someone, or to make something easier.

Aid, spelled without an e, means to help or the help itself — foreign aid, first aid, or aiding a friend. An aide, with an e, is a person who assists someone, such as a nurse's aide or a political aide. One is help; the other is a helper.

It can be both. Here it works as a verb meaning to help or support, as in 'volunteers aided the survivors.' Aid is equally common as a noun meaning assistance or the resources given, as in humanitarian aid, financial aid, or a hearing aid.

You might say, 'Good lighting aids concentration,' or 'Neighbours aided the family after the fire.' In each case, to aid is to help someone or to make a task, process, or condition easier and more achievable than it would otherwise be.

To aid is to help, so its opposites are to hinder, obstruct, hamper, or block — actively making something harder rather than easier. Where aiding smooths the way for a person or task, hindering puts obstacles in the path and holds progress back.