aide

\ɛd\

/\ɛd\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“aide” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #397) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#397
frequency rank, French
6,727
“A” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Action d’apporter son soutien physiquement, verbalement, financièrement ou de tout autre manière.

Corpus desk

Index FR-aide · aide · French

aide · rank #397 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #397
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,727
  • PHOTO-FINISH ah

Nearest frequency peer: ah (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Frequency neighbourhood for “aide”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “aide” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

aide vs air
50% similar
aide vs ait
50% similar
aide vs and
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for aide
PropertyValue
Headwordaide
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɛd\
Letters4
Frequency rank#397
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Où “aide” se place dans la fréquence du français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.aidese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « ah » (#396), « belle » (#398), « afin » (#395). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for aide is neighbouring look-alikes ("air", "ait", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \ɛd\. Frequency #397 among 6,727 “A” headwords. 4 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for aide, with forms such as "adie", "aidde", and "aied". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "air", "ait", "and", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is aide, spelled A-I-D-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Action d’apporter son soutien physiquement, verbalement, financièrement ou de tout autre manière.
  2. 2
    À la fois la personne dont on reçoit du secours et le soutien que l’on en tire.
  3. 3
    Secours que procurent certaines choses.
  4. 4
    Église ou chapelle qui sert de succursale à une église paroissiale dont les habitants sont trop éloignés.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how aide appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Notons que le terme association a été très mal choisi. Il n'implique pas que les plantes se prêtent une aide quelconque. En général, elles sont concurrentes.
  2. J’ai besoin de votre aide.

Synonyms

appuiassistancecollaborationconcourscoopérationsecourssoutien

Antonyms

empêchementgêneobstacle

This word in other languages

help(English)ayuda(Español)Hilfsmittel(Deutsch)ajuda(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • adie
  • aidde
  • aied
  • iade

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of aide - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

adie2aidde1aied2iade2
Edit distance from "aide"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "aide"?
"aide" is spelled A-I-D-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ɛd\.
What does "aide" mean?
As a noun, "aide" means: Action d’apporter son soutien physiquement, verbalement, financièrement ou de tout autre manière.
What words are commonly confused with "aide"?
"aide" is commonly confused with "air", "ait", "and". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "aide"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "aide" is \ɛd\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "aide" come from?
"aide" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "aide", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

afin#395type#394long#401sait#393

What to do next

You've looked up "aide". Here's where to go from here.

  • "aide" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "air". View pair
  • 4 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
  • Usage frequency rank #397 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more French words in the "A" letter cohort. A–Z browse

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list