assist

1. 1.

   give help or assistance; be of service

   “Everyone helped out during the earthquake”

   “Can you help me carry this table?”

   “She never helps around the house”

   Synonymshelpaid

   Broadersupport

   Narrowerfacilitateservebenefacthelp outsubservesuccorexpediteavailcarebootstrap
2. 2.

   act as an assistant in a subordinate or supportive function

   Broaderwork

   Narrowerprotectabet
3. 3.

   work for or be a servant to

   “May I serve you?”

   “She attends the old lady in the wheelchair”

   “Can you wait on our table, please?”

   “Is a salesperson assisting you?”

   “The minister served the King for many years”

   Synonymsserveattend towait onattend

   Broaderhelp

   Narrowervaletfag

1. 1.

   the activity of contributing to the fulfillment of a need or furtherance of an effort or purpose

   “he gave me an assist with the housework”

   “could not walk without assistance”

   “rescue party went to their aid”

   “offered his help in unloading”

   Synonymsaidassistancehelp

   Broaderactivity

   Narrowerself-helpfacilitationhandrecoursethanksreliefliftserviceaccommodationboost
2. 2.

   (sports) the act of enabling another player to make a good play

   Broadermaneuver

   baseball · basketball · ice hockey

Other forms of assist

plural

assists·

past tense

assisted·

present participle

assisting·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about assist

What does assist mean?

assist means "give help or assistance; be of service". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in assist?

assist has 2 syllables: as-sist. The stress falls on "sist". In IPA it is /əˈsɪst/.

What is another word for assist?

Close synonyms include help, aid, serve, attend to, wait on. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is assist a common word?

assist is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with assist?

6 words rhyme with assist. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.