assist
as·sist/əˈsɪst/verb, noun
assist is spelled A-S-S-I-S-T, 2 syllables: as·sist. The wrong spelling people search most is asist: about 680 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 14 of all searches for the word. Assist is a verb meaning “To help”.
How many letters and syllables are in assist?
| Letters | 6: A-S-S-I-S-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: as·sist |
| In writing | 26 times per million words; the 3,479th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, asist, about 680 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell assist?
Assist is spelled A-S-S-I-S-T. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 13 of the searches for assist in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is assist?
Assist appears 26 times per million words in written English, the 3,479th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce assist?
- /əˈsɪst/
Assist has 2 syllables, split as·sist in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-assist.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with assist?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as assist.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: stasis.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of assist
- assists present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- assisting participle, present
- assisted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does assist mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To help.
This book will assist you in getting your life in order.
- 2
To make a pass that leads directly towards scoring.
- 3
To help compensate for what is missing with the help of a medical technique or therapy.
- 4
archaicTo stand (at a place) or to (an opinion).
A great part of the nobility assisted to his opinion.
- 5
archaicTo be present (at an event, occasion etc.).
To assist at Mass every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation.
noun
- 1
A helpful action or an act of giving.
The foundation gave a much needed assist to the shelter.
- 2
A decisive pass made to the goal scorer
- 3
A defensive play, allowing a teammate to record a putout.
He had two assists in the game.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Assist in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | assister, aider , passe décisive |
| German | assistieren, helfen, beistehen, unterstützen , vorlegen , Vorlage |
| Portuguese | assistir, prestar assistência, ajudar , assistência |
| Spanish | ayudar, asistir |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does assist come from?
From Middle English assisten, from Old French assister (“to assist, to attend”), from Latin assistō (“stand at, bestand”, verb).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).