Services

How to spell services

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce services

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does services mean?

1. nounActs of helpful work, or organised systems and facilities provided for people to use.
2. verbPerforms maintenance or repair work on a machine or vehicle.

Services in a sentence

• noun

  The council cut funding for local services this year.

• verb

  The garage services my car every spring without fail.

• noun

  The company offers a range of cleaning and catering services.

• verb

  A qualified engineer services the boiler once a year.

Where does services come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin servitium, meaning 'the condition of a slave' or 'servitude', which was built on servus, the Latin word for a slave or servant. The sense softened considerably as it passed through Old French as servise, where it came to mean useful work done for another person rather than literal bondage. English adopted it in the 1100s and 1200s, first in religious and feudal contexts such as a church service or service owed to a lord, before broadening to cover any helpful work, then the businesses that provide it. The plural form services simply adds the regular -s, and the same servire root still powers familiar relatives like serve, servant, and servile. The spelling trap is the quiet -vice ending, which sounds like 'viss' yet is written with a c, not an s.

How the word is built

• serv- (from servire: to serve)
• -ice (noun-forming)
• -s (plural/third-person)