DailyWritingTips

85 Synonyms for “Help”

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There are so many ways to help — at least eighty-five, I discovered. Here are that number of synonyms and idiomatic phrases for the verb help:

1. Abet: to actively help with an endeavor
2. Accommodate: to offer something, especially to help meet a need or want
3. Advance: to speed up the development of an initiative or cause
4. Advise: to recommend or warn
5. Aid: to provide something necessary to help
6. Alleviate: see relieve, and to help correct or remove a problem
7. Ameliorate: to make better or more manageable
8. Amend: to help by improving
9. Assist: to supplement an effort
10. Attend: to stand ready to help
11. Back: to help with actions or words, or to help financially
12. Backstop: see bolster
13. Bail out: to help someone suffering hardship; also, to abandon an enterprise
14. Ballyhoo: see hype
15. Bear a hand: see “lend a hand”
16. Be of use: see benefit
17. Befriend: to become a friend of
18. Benefit: to be helpful
19. Bolster: to help in order to strengthen
20. Boost: to physically help one up from below, or to help publicly; also, slang for “steal”
21. Buck up: see bolster
22. Buttress: to strengthen figuratively or literally
23. Care for: to help someone recover
24. Champion: to advocate or protect
25. Cheer: to make someone feel better through deeds or words; also, to applaud vocally
26. Comfort: to provide hope or strength, or to console
27. Contribute: to give financial or material help or to provide services
28. Cooperate: to proactively offer help, or to compromise
29. Counsel: see advise
30. Deliver: to convey something to another
31. Ease: to make easier
32. Embolden: to give courage to
33. Encourage: to inspire, or to help by offering a positive comment or making a helpful gesture
34. Endorse: to approve or recommend
35. Facilitate: to help enable something to occur
36. Favor: to give partisan help to someone
37. Forward: see encourage
38. Foster: see encourage and nurture
39. Further: see encourage
40. Go to bat for: see back
41. Guide: see advise, or to show or demonstrate
42. Hearten: see encourage
43. Hype: to provide extravagant publicity
44. Intercede: to become involved on another’s behalf
45. Launch: to help someone start an enterprise
46. Lend a hand: to provide material help
47. Meliorate: see ameliorate
48. Mentor: see advise
49. Minister to: to give help to, especially in terms of emotional or physical needs
50. Mitigate: see relieve and mollify
51. Mollify: to assuage, soften, or soothe
52. Nurture: to help develop
53. Oblige: to indulge a request for help
54. Open doors: to provide help through influence or recommendation
55. Palliate: to reduce discomfort or pain, or to excuse
56. Patronize: to provide help through influence or financial support
57. Plug: see promote
58. Promote: provide help by advertising or by enabling publicity
59. Prop up: see bolster
60. Push: to help in reaching an objective
61. Reinforce: see encourage, or to strengthen
62. Relieve: to remove a burden or obligation, or to take one’s place in performing a task
63. Remedy: see relieve
64. Rescue: to help someone or something harmed, in poor conditions, or in financial straits
65. Restore: to improve by returning to a previous, better condition, or to help rejuvenate
66. Revive: to bring back to life or former improved circumstances
67. Root for: to publicly make positive comments, or to applaud vocally
68. Sanction: to approve, especially in an official capacity; can also mean to ratify, or to censure)
69. Save: see rescue
70. Second: see assist and reinforce
71. See (something) through: to help accomplish or complete a task
72. Serve: to satisfy or supply needs or wants
73. Sponsor: see patronize
74. Stand by: see back
75. Stick up for: see back
76. Stimulate: see restore
77. Stump for: see promote
78. Succor: see relieve
79. Support: see assist and promote
80. Sustain: see assist and relieve
81. Take under (one’s) wing: see patronize
82. Treat: to care for
83. Stand one in good stead: see bolster
84. Uphold: see assist
85. Work for: to help accomplish a goal

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6 thoughts on “85 Synonyms for “Help””

  1. Perfect timing, I am pleading with people to keep a friend’s newborn in mind as they go along their day. I might have to use this article to assist. Thanks for sharing, as always!

  2. We Aussies can rarely contain our giggles when we hear the phrase “root for,” which to our ears has sexual connotations.

    [We can’t help it – it’s the convict strain in our ancestry :)) ]

    We say “barrack for.”

    See also ‘fanny.’

  3. Amandah (and anyone else looking for synonyms and the like): I can’t recommend WordNet highly enough. It doesn’t just provide straight synonyms, but trees of related words so that you can get at that word that’s right on the tip of your tongue, or find a related phrase that keeps things original.

    It’s just plain fab.

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