helpmeet
/ˈhɛlpmiːt/
helpmeet noun: a helpful partner, particularly a spouse.
Noun
helpmeet (plural helpmeets)
- A helpful partner, particularly a spouse.
- [on vocabulary errors] … and helpmates for meet-helps—the difference of the meaning of the two words is so obvious, that it is surprising it should have escaped attention.—A person may be a helpmate and at the same time be very far from being a help-meet, which is here intended.1839, The Friend's Intelligencer, volume 1, number 24, Eighth month 1st, 1839, article Friend's Discipline, pages 456–457
- When he went to Deborah and told her that the Lord had led him to ask her to be his wife, his holy helpmeet, she looked at him for a moment in what seemed to be speechless terror.1953, James Baldwin, “Gabriel's Prayer”, in Go Tell It on the Mountain (Penguin Classics), London: Penguin Books, published 2001, →ISBN
- Synonyms:
- helpmate, spouse, better half, consort, mate, other half, partner, spousy, wedder
Synonyms of helpmeet
Forms of helpmeet
| plural | helpmeets |
|---|
Origin of helpmeet
Univerbation of part of a phrase in Genesis 2:18 in the King James Version: “an helpe meet” for Adam (i.e. a helper suitable for him) (help + meet).
Questions about helpmeet
- What does helpmeet mean?
- Helpmeet means a helpful partner, particularly a spouse.
- What part of speech is helpmeet?
- Helpmeet is a noun.
- How do you pronounce helpmeet?
- Helpmeet is pronounced /ˈhɛlpmiːt/.
- What is the plural of helpmeet?
- The plural of helpmeet is helpmeets.
Words near helpmeet in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: helpmeet (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.
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Cite this entry: “helpmeet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/helpmeet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.