Aids

How to spell aids

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce aids

What does aids mean?

1. nounDevices, materials, or other things that provide help or support.
2. verbThird-person singular form of 'aid': gives help or support to someone or something.

Aids in a sentence

• noun

  The lecture used visual aids such as charts and diagrams.

• verb

  A balanced diet aids recovery after surgery.

• noun

  She wears two hearing aids to follow conversations clearly.

• verb

  The new software aids the accounting team with monthly reports.

Where does aids come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the plural noun and third-person verb form of 'aid', which English took from the Old French 'aidier', meaning 'to help'. That French verb descended from the Latin 'adiutare', a strengthened, repeated-action form of 'adiuvare', literally 'to give help to', built from 'ad-' (to, towards) and 'iuvare' (to help or to please). The word arrived in English in the 1400s, at first chiefly as a verb for giving assistance and soon afterwards as a noun for the help itself. Over time the noun extended to mean a person or a device that helps, which is why we speak of hearing aids and visual aids. That last sense is the spelling trap: 'aids' (helps or helpful things) sounds identical to 'aides' (personal assistants), so the two are easily swapped in writing.

How the word is built

• aid (help, from Latin adiutare)
• -s (plural noun / third-person singular verb ending)