helping
noun
Simple meaning
One serving of food on a plate.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
hehlpingSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhɛlpɪŋ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The act of giving aid or assistance (to).
countable
A portion or serving, especially of food that one takes for oneself, or to which one helps oneself.
An individual quantity of food or drink taken as part of a meal
figurativecountable
An amount or quantity.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The act of giving aid or assistance (to).
Used this way, helping is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use helping
- “The helpings were all small.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A person who contributes to the fulfillment of a need or furtherance of an effort or purpose.
Providing assistance or serving a useful function.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: giving aid or assistance (to)
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.