mayday
may·day/ˈmeɪ̯deɪ̯/noun
mayday is spelled M-A-Y-D-A-Y: 6 letters and 2 syllables (may·day). It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,393rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, mayday means “An international distress signal used by shipping and aircraft” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of mayday is maydays.
How many letters and syllables are in mayday?
| Letters | 6: M-A-Y-D-A-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: may·day |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 32,393rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is mayday?
Mayday appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,393rd 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 mayday?
- /ˈmeɪ̯deɪ̯/
- [ˈmeɪ̯deɪ̯]
- Australia /ˈmæɪ̯deɪ̯/
Mayday has 2 syllables, split may·day in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-mayday.ogg, En-au-mayday.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of mayday
- maydays plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does mayday mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An international distress signal used by shipping and aircraft.
noun
- 1
Alternative form of mayday.
Wiktionary also records mayday as a common misspelling of another word in some uses; the senses above are its own.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mayday in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense international distress signal used by shipping and aircraft:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | mayday, SOS |
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 mayday come from?
From the distress signal mayday, from French m'aider, short for Venez m'aider! (“Come to help me!”). The term was conceived in the early 1920s by Frederick Stanley Mockford, officer-in-charge of radio at Croydon Airport in England. He had been asked to think of a word that would indicate distress and would easily be understood by all pilots and ground staff in an emergency. Since much of the air traffic at the time was between Croydon and Le Bourget Airport in Paris, he proposed the term "mayday," the phonetic equivalent of the French m'aider.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).