Avail

How to spell avail

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce avail

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does avail mean?

1. verbTo be of use, help, or benefit; (reflexively) to make use of something.
2. nounUse, benefit, or advantage, typically in the phrase 'to no avail'.

Avail in a sentence

• verb

  No amount of pleading will avail him now that the deadline has passed.

• noun

  We searched the loft for the missing keys, but to no avail.

• verb

  Staff are encouraged to avail themselves of the free training courses.

• noun

  He argued with the airline for an hour, all to little avail.

Where does avail come from?

Language of origin: French

Avail traces back to the Latin verb valere, which meant 'to be strong' or 'to be worth', the same root that gives us 'value', 'valid' and 'valour'. In Old French this became valoir, 'to be of worth', and Anglo-Norman speakers prefixed it with a- (from Latin ad, 'to') to form a verb meaning 'to be of use or benefit'. English picked it up in the 1300s, first in the sense of being helpful or advantageous, as in something that 'avails' a person. The reflexive phrase 'avail oneself of', meaning to make use of an opportunity, also dates from medieval usage and survives in formal English today. The single l at the end is the spelling trap, since writers often expect a doubled consonant that the word never had.

How the word is built

• a- (from Latin ad-, 'to')
• vail (from Old French valoir, Latin valere, 'to be worth, be strong')