Word.ws English Dictionary

service

Syllables: ser·vice/ˈsɜː.vɪs//ˈsɝ.vɪs/

service noun: an act of being of assistance to someone.

Noun (1)

service (countable and uncountable, plural services)

  1. An act of being of assistance to someone.
    • I say I did him a service by ending our relationship – now he can freely pursue his career.
    • The Parliament for ever cries more money, / The service of the state demands more money. / Just heaven! of what service is the state?1794, Robert Southey, Wat Tyler. A Dramatic Poem. In Three Acts, London: J[ohn] M‘Creery, […] for Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, […], published 1817, →OCLC, Act I, page 7
  2. The state of being subordinate to or employed by an individual or group.
    • Lancelot was at the service of King Arthur.
    • The lesser griefs that may be said, / ⁠That breathe a thousand tender vows, / ⁠Are but as servants in a house / Where lies the master newly dead; / Who speak their feeling as it is, / ⁠And weep the fulness from the mind: / ⁠‘It will be hard’ they say ‘to find / Another service such as this.’1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 33
  3. (uncountable, elliptical) Work as a member of the military.
    • Thank you for your service.
    • Students were exempt from service in the armed forces.
  4. The military.
    • the service
    • I did three years in the service before coming here.
    Synonyms:
    forces
  5. The practice of providing assistance as economic activity.
    • Hair care is a service industry.
    • The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing",[...]and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business...2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27
  6. Synonym of utility (“commodity provided on a continuous basis by a physical infrastructure network, such as electricity, water supply or sewerage”).
    Synonyms:
    utility
  7. A department in a company, organization, or institution.
  8. A function that is provided by one program or machine for another.
    • This machine provides the name service for the LAN.
  9. A set of dishes or utensils.
    • She brought out the silver tea service.
    • When their lavish fiestas ended they threw the silver service and even golden vessels from their balconies to be picked up by lucky passersby.1997, Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, Monthly Review Press, page 36
  10. The act of initially starting, or serving, the ball in play in tennis, volleyball, and other games.
    • The player had four service faults in the set.
  11. A religious rite or ritual.
    • Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
    • The funerary service was touching.
  12. The serving, or delivery, of a summons or writ.
    • He Suſpends on theſe Reaſons, that Thomas Rue had granted a general Diſcharge to Adam Muſhet, who was his Conjunct, and correus debendi, after the alleadged Service, which Diſcharged Muſhet, and conſequently Houstoun his Partner.1668 July 3, James Dalrymple, “Thomas Rue contra Andrew Houſtoun” in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 548
    • The service happened yesterday.
Show 5 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (Israel, also, West Bank, Lebanon and Syria) A taxi shared among unrelated passengers, each of whom pays part of the fare; often, it has a fixed route between cities.
  2. A musical composition for use in churches.
  3. (obsolete) Profession of respect; acknowledgment of duty owed.
    • Pray, do my service to his majesty.1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio)...
  4. The materials used for serving a rope, etc., such as spun yarn and small lines.
  5. Access to resources such as hotel rooms and Web-based videos without transfer of the resources' ownership.

Verb

service (third-person singular simple present services, present participle servicing, simple past and past participle serviced)

  1. (transitive) To serve.
    • They service the customer base.
    • The USS Manila Bay, in the next group south of Taffy 3, services aircraft from eleven different squadrons that aren't attached to her own flight group, and, at one point, has representatives from no less than four other carriers' airgroups on her flight deck at the same time.2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 28:07 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2022
    1. (transitive) To perform maintenance.
      • He is going to service the car.
      • 2 GWM businessmen seek young GM to service nice small country home in So. NH1980 August 30, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 6, page 14
    2. (transitive, public relations) To supply (media outlets) with press releases etc.
      • One obvious way is press releases, which should be sent to your region's reporters, editors and columnists, the wire services, professional publications. […] Servicing the media should be an everyday thing.1977, Patricia Marshall, Citizen Participation Certification for Community Development, page 107
      • […] instead of expending so much of their PR effort on servicing the media.1971, College and University Journal, volumes 10-11, page 9
  2. (transitive) To make a repayment or pay interest (on a debt).
    • It continues to be laden with intense debt servicing costs.
  3. (euphemistic, transitive) To inseminate through sexual intercourse.
  4. (transitive, vulgar) To perform a sexual act upon.
    • He serviced her several times a week.
    Synonyms:
    be with
  5. (euphemistic, transitive) To attack.
    • to service a target
    • target servicing

Noun (2)

service (plural services)

  1. Service tree.
  2. The sorb; the fruit of this tree.

Proper noun capitalized: Service

Service

  1. A surname.
  2. An unincorporated community in Crawford County, Missouri, United States.

service meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

service in Hindi

the military
सेवा sevā
practice of providing services as economic activity
सेवा sevā

service in Tamil

சேவை, தொண்டு, பணி

service in Marathi

service, attendance, diligent and watchful waiting upon
शुश्रूषा śuśrūṣā
service
नोकरी nokrī

service in Urdu

the military
خِدْمَت xidmat
practice of providing services as economic activity
خِدْمَت xidmat, سَرْوِس sarvis
More languagesFewer languages
service in Bengali
সেবা śeba, খেদমত khedmot
service in Telugu
సేవ sēva
service in Malayalam
സേവ sēva, സേവനം sēvanaṁ, ശുശ്രൂഷ śuśrūṣa
service in Kannada
ಬದಗು, ಆಳ್ತನ, ಆಳುತನ, ಊಳಿಗ
service in Punjabi
سیوا, سانبھ sāṉbh, ਸਾਂਭ sāmbh, ਸੇਵਾ sevā
service in Gujarati
સેવા
service in Odia
କର୍ମ karma
service in Sanskrit
सेवा sevā
service in Sinhala
සේවා sēwā
service in Assamese
সেৱা xewa
service in Nepali
सेवा
service in Pashto
خدمت xedmat
service in Arabic
خِدْمَة ḵidma
service in Malay
khidmat, perkhidmatan, servis, upacara
service in Indonesian
servis, dinas, jawa, layanan
service in Persian
خدمت کردن xedmat kardan
service in Thai
ราชการทหาร râat-chá-gaan-tá-hǎan, การบริการ gaan-bɔɔ-rí-gaan, บริการ bɔɔ-rí-gaan
service in Vietnamese
nghĩa vụ, phục vụ
service in Myanmar
စစ်မှုထမ်းခြင်း cachmu.htam:hkrang:
Kashmiri
خٔدمَتھ khạdmath, خٔذمَتھ khạzmath, خٔزمَتھ khạzmath

Examples of service in a sentence

  • He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
  • Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing",[...]and so on.2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:

All 40 example sentences with service

Synonyms of service

Antonyms

  • antonym(s) of

All synonyms and antonyms of service

Forms of service

Noun
pluralservices
alternative form (obsolete)seruice
Verb
third-person singular presentservices
present participleservicing
past participleserviced
pastserviced

Past tense of service: serviced

Plural of service: services

Origin of service

From Middle English servise, from Old English serfis, from Old French servise (French service), from the verb servir, from Latin servitium (compare Portuguese serviço, Italian servizio, Norman sèrvice, Spanish servicio), from servus (“servant; serf; slave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ser-wo-s (“guardian”), possibly from *ser- (“watch over, protect”). Displaced native Old English þeġnung.

Properly, the tree that bears sorb fruit, from Middle English serves, plural of serve (“sorb apple, serviceberry”), from Old English syrfe, from Vulgar Latin *sorbea, from Latin sorbus (“service tree”). See sorb.

Words formed from service

Phrases with service

163 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with service

Questions about service

What does service mean?
Service means an act of being of assistance to someone.
What is service in Hindi?
Service in Hindi is सेवा (sevā). See Service meaning in Hindi.
How do you use service in a sentence?
He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.
What part of speech is service?
Service can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce service?
Service is pronounced /ˈsɜː.vɪs/ (UK).
What is the plural of service?
The plural of service is services.

Words near service in the dictionary

  1. servibar
  2. servibars
  3. servicable
  4. servical
  5. servicals
  6. service
  7. service academies
  8. service academy
  9. service agreement
  10. service agreements
  11. service animal

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: service (page history and authors); Service (page history and authors); service (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); नोकरी (Marathi) (page history and authors); ശുശ്രൂഷ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); service (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); سانبھ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); service (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); କର୍ମ (Odia) (page history and authors); service (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-service.wav, En-us-service.ogg.

Cite this entry: “service.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/service. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.