Helmet

How to spell helmet

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce helmet

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does helmet mean?

1. nounA hard protective covering worn on the head to guard against injury.

Helmet in a sentence

• The law requires every cyclist to wear a helmet on busy roads.

• He clipped the chin strap of his motorcycle helmet before setting off.

Where does helmet come from?

Language of origin: French

The word arrived in English in the 1400s from Old French helmet, a diminutive of helme, meaning a protective covering for the head. That French helme was itself borrowed from a Germanic source, related to the Old English helm, which meant a protective cover or crown and is connected to a root meaning 'to cover' or 'to conceal'. The little ending '-et' is the French diminutive, so the word literally suggests a 'small helm', a snug head guard rather than a grand piece of armour. The same Germanic root survives in the German word Helm and in the surname element seen in places and people across northern Europe. Because the modern word kept the single 'l' and the short, clean ending, it rarely troubles spellers, though the diminutive '-et' rather than '-ette' is the one detail worth fixing in memory.

How the word is built

• helm (protective head covering, from Germanic)
• -et (diminutive suffix, from French)