aid
Pluralaids (some meanings)
Pluralaids (some meanings)
- 1Help, support, or relief given to a person or group in need.
International aid reached the disaster zone within days of the earthquake.
The charity provides financial aid to students from low-income families.
UsageOften in come to someone's aid, and with to or for: aid to a country, aid for students.
Similarhelp, assistance, support, relief
- 2To give support to someone or something, helping its progress along.
Several nonprofits aid refugees as they settle into new communities.
Regular practice aids students in mastering a new language.
UsageOften aid someone in doing something, or aid in something: aids in digestion. The passive is common: aided by good weather.
Similarhelp, assist, support, facilitate
- 3A thing or device that provides help or makes a task easier.
Diagrams serve as a valuable aid in explaining complex machinery.
She relied on a walking aid after the surgery.
UsageUsually after a word naming the job (a walking aid, visual aids), or with to: an aid to memory.
Note
Henry Petroski describes the reading stone as an early visual aid: a glass segment that scribes held over manuscript pages to magnify them.
Less common meanings
- 4A person who assists another, especially an official or officer; a less common spelling of aide.
The colonel dictated the report to his aid, who copied it out by candlelight before dawn.
Riding beside the general, his young aid scribbled down each order and galloped off to deliver it.
UsageFor a person, aide is the usual spelling today (a presidential aide); aid most often means help.
Note
The person who helps has a long pedigree: in the King James Bible of 1611, Tobias recalls God's resolve to make man "an aide like to himselfe." The spelling there, with a final e, is the one now usual for an official's assistant, aide. That shared spelling is why aid and aide overlap so readily when the helper is a person.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The King James Bible was first published in 1611. en.wikipedia.org
- The speaker is Tobias, Tobit's son, praying in Tobit 8:5–6. en.wikisource.org
- The 1611 text contains the exact words “an aide like to himselfe,” including the final e in “aide.” kingjamesbibleonline.org
- 5A rider's use of the hands, legs, voice, and other means to direct and control the horse.
A subtle aid from the seat shifted the horse into a canter.
If the horse ignores a gentle leg aid, the rider can reinforce it with a light tap of the crop.
UsageRiders give or apply an aid, and a trained horse responds to the aids.
Note
Equitation divides them into natural aids (hands, legs, seat and voice) and artificial aids such as the whip and spurs.
- 6To climb a rock face using equipment such as pitons to support one's weight rather than relying on holds alone.
The team chose to aid the overhanging crack with a row of pitons.
On the blankest pitches, even strong climbers must aid where no holds exist.
Note
Climbers set this sense against free climbing. To aid a pitch is to place gear such as pitons, cams or étriers and put your weight on it, instead of moving on natural holds alone. The route itself becomes the object ("we aided an 80-foot A2 to A3 crack"), and the A-grades rate how hard such a climb is.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Aid climbing is contrasted with free climbing. rei.com
- Aid climbing uses equipment to support upward movement. scouting.org
- Pitons and cams are used in aid climbing. en.wikipedia.org
- Étriers are aid-climbing equipment. scouting.org
- The quoted example is accurately reproduced. en.wiktionary.org
- A-grades rate aid-climbing difficulty. publications.americanalpineclub.org
- 7A subsidy that Parliament granted to the crown for an extraordinary purpose, such as funding a war.
In this parliament was granted to the king for defence against the Scots two aids and two quindecims, the which two aids did not extend over two quindecims.
2019, Julia Boffey, Henry VII's London in the Great Chronicle - 8In feudal times, a payment of money that a vassal owed his lord on certain special occasions.
- 9A loan transacted through the Exchequer, the office that managed the crown's money.
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Practice
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Origins
The noun goes back to Latin "adiūtāre" ("to assist, help"), which gave the Old French verb "aidier" and the noun "eide, aide"; English took it over as Middle English "aide." Spanish "ayuda," Portuguese "ajuda," and Italian "aiuto" are related.
The verb starts from Latin "adiuvō" ("to assist"), whose frequentative form "adiuto" passed into Old French as "eider, aider, aidier" and then into Middle English as "aiden."