helpmate
noun
helpmate is a noun meaning “A person who supplies help or companionship” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled H-E-L-P-M-A-T-E, and it appears about once in every 18 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of helpmate is helpmates.
What does helpmate mean?
noun
- 1
A person who supplies help or companionship.
- 2
A wife or spouse.
- 3
A recreational problem in chess in which both sides cooperate to achieve a specific goal.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce helpmate?
- US
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-helpmate.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of helpmate
- helpmates plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is helpmate?
Helpmate appears about once in every 18 million words in written English, the 127,184th 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).
Helpmate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | compagnon , compagne |
| German | Helfer, Gehilfe, Begleiter, Gefährte , Lebensgefährte, Lebensgefährtin |
| Portuguese | companheiro, ajudante |
| Spanish | compañero, ayudante , compañera |
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 helpmate come from?
A folk-etymological alteration of helpmeet, by reanalysis as help + mate.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).