Word.ws English Dictionary

cannot help

cannot help is the alternative form of can't help.

Meaning of can't help

Verb

can't help (third-person singular simple present can't help, no present participle, simple past couldn't help, no past participle)

  1. (idiomatic, no-past-participle, no-present-participle) To be unable to avoid a situation, or stop something from happening.
    • I can't help crying whenever I see Romeo and Juliet.

Forms of cannot help

third-person singular presentcannot help
pastcould not help

Questions about cannot help

What is cannot help the alternative form of?
Cannot help is the alternative form of can't help.

Words near cannot help in the dictionary

  1. Cannons Creek
  2. Cannonsville
  3. cannot
  4. cannot away with
  5. cannot but
  6. cannot help
  7. cannot help but
  8. cannot live with them, cannot live without them
  9. cannot make it
  10. cannot-link
  11. cannots

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cannot help (page history and authors); can't help (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “cannot help.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cannot_help. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.