Aid or aide?
aid is a noun meaning “Help; assistance; succor, relief”; aide is a noun meaning “An assistant”. They sound the same (/eɪd/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) aid is about 11 times as common as aide.
What is the difference between aid and aide?
| aid | aide | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun |
| Meaning | Help; assistance; succor, relief A helper; an assistant To provide support to; to further the progress of; to help; to assist | An assistant An officer who acts as assistant to a more senior one; an aide-de-camp |
| Example | He came to my aid when I was foundering | none recorded |
| Forms | aids | aides |
| Pronunciation | /eɪd/ | /eɪd/ |
| In writing | 56 times per million words | 4.9 times per million words |
Sources: aid and aide in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of aid and aide
aid
- 1
Help; assistance; succor, relief
He came to my aid when I was foundering
- 2
To provide support to; to further the progress of; to help; to assist
- 3
Initialism of artificial insemination by donor
- 4
A helper; an assistant
- 5
To climb with the use of aids such as pitons
- 6
Something which helps; a material source of help
Slimming aids include dietary supplements and appetite suppressants
- 7
UKAn historical subsidy granted to the crown by Parliament for an extraordinary purpose, such as a war effort
- 8
UKAn exchequer loan
aide
- 1
An assistant
- 2
An officer who acts as assistant to a more senior one; an aide-de-camp
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, aid or aide?
aid appears 56 times per million words; aide 4.9 times per million words.
aid 56 times per million wordsaide 4.9 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search aid vs aide?
“aid vs aide” is searched about 9,900 times a month on Google and 800 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“aide vs aid”, “aid or aide”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.