(A) serving and (a) portion are the most precise synonyms for the noun (a) helping. The kids have already had two helpings of dessert they don’t need candy! However, helping can also be used as a noun, with a meaning other than “an act of assistance” or “a source of aid.” When you add “ing” to the verb help, you change the verb’s tense, but not the word’s meaning.

While you could substitute remedy, rescue, or relief for help in the first example, and hope or chance for the second, using help in those phrases will convey your meaning most clearly-at least among those who share your language and its idioms. Help wanted → employees or workers are wanted for hire.There is no help for him → there really is no hope for the person.The situation is beyond help → there is no relief or remedy for the situation.People who describe others as “the help” or “hired help” are generally putting themselves in a superior position.Īs with the verb help, there are also idiomatic uses for the noun help. The noun help has also been used in negative or diminishing ways to describe domestic workers. Their involvement isn’t a help it’s just another problem!.The food you sent over was such a help.The assembly instructions provided almost no help.If they want to provide help, they can wash the dishes.If you could lift the other side, that would be a great help.I would love some help with this project.You cannot just help yourself to my money!Īs a noun, help takes on distinct meanings again, but not with as much variety as it does in its verb form.We often say “I just couldn’t help myself” or “Don’t blame him, he couldn’t help it.” Swapping a synonym may be trickier here, so be certain the one you choose fits your tone, context, and purpose.Īnd speaking of idioms, there are a couple of other ways help is used in figures of speech, which means you probably won’t swap out the help for a synonym in these contexts: Note: the use represented in the final category is pretty close to being idiomatic. You must still consider your context carefully, but this chart, organized by common denotations of help, gives you plenty of synonym options to work with. With all of those possible uses, it is easy to fall into using the word repetitively. More salt will help the flavor come through.Your generous donation will help us find a cure!.She told me earning my degree would help my job prospects.I don’t think there’s anything to help my heartbreak.Take an aspirin to help your muscle aches.To soothe or make less severe or more tolerable I offered to help her with her move to a new apartment.These sentences show several ways help can take on different connotations and nuances even within its verb identity. There are a variety of definitions for help, even within its identity as a verb. That's correct, but there are other meanins, too. When we think of the verb help, we most likely think of a scenario in which help means providing assistance or support. And depending on its context, it performs different functions. Like many other words, help has its share of identities as well: it can be a verb, a noun, or an interjection. Of course there is an overlap sometimes, but even in a family crowd, I interact with people differently. I’m just one person, but I function in different ways depending on who I’m with and what my role is in their life. For example, I’m a wife, mother, daughter, sister, cousin, and aunt.

If you’re part of a family, you automatically have a variety of identities.

Help Has a Large Family of Related Words.

Helpful syn