Guidance

How to spell guidance

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce guidance

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does guidance mean?

1. nounHelp, advice, or direction given to someone to assist them in making a decision or finding their way.

Guidance in a sentence

• The new staff received clear guidance on the safety procedures.

• She sought professional guidance before investing her savings.

Where does guidance come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is built on the verb 'guide', which English took from the Old French 'guider', meaning 'to lead' or 'to direct', back in the 1300s. The French verb itself traces to a Germanic root that also lies behind the modern English word 'wit' and the idea of knowing the way, so to guide someone was originally to show them what you knew of the path. To this borrowed stem English later attached the productive suffix '-ance', which comes through French from the Latin '-antia' and forms abstract nouns naming an action or a condition. 'Guidance' therefore literally means 'the state of guiding', and it appears in English from around the fifteenth century. The spelling trap is the silent 'u' after the 'g', which is there to keep the 'g' hard, exactly as in 'guide', 'guard', and 'guest'.

How the word is built

• guid- (from Old French guider: to lead, direct)
• -ance (noun suffix denoting an action or state)