helping hand
noun
Simple meaning
Any assistance, help or aid.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
hehlpihnghandSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhɛlpɪŋˈhænd
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
idiomatic
Any assistance, help or aid.
A grabber (tool used to pick up items without bending or stretching).
Physical assistance
electrical engineering
A jig used to help solder wires and electronics, consisting of a weighted base, a pair of adjustable arms ending in crocodile clips (the hands), and sometimes a magnifying glass, held together by flexible joints.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Any assistance, help or aid.
Used this way, helping hand 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.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.