Word.ws English Dictionary

take the helm

take the helm verb: to assume responsibility for steering a ship.

Verb

take the helm (third-person singular simple present takes the helm, present participle taking the helm, simple past took the helm, past participle taken the helm)

  1. (literal) To assume responsibility for steering a ship.
  2. (broadly, figuratively) To take over responsibility (of something) from someone else.
    • The nation was also at peace. The Cold War had ended before Bill Clinton took the helm, and his presidency had experienced nothing that could be called a major international crisis. Turmoil in the Balkans and Middle East was nothing new. Iraq required attention but no massive deployment of...2001, Barbara Olson, “The Final Frenzy: Finishing Touches on the Legend”, in The Final Days: The Last, Desperate Abuses of Power by the Clinton White House (Politics/Current Affairs), Washington...
    Synonyms:
    take the con

Synonyms of take the helm

Forms of take the helm

third-person singular presenttakes the helm
present participletaking the helm
pasttook the helm
past participletaken the helm

Questions about take the helm

What does take the helm mean?
Take the helm means to assume responsibility for steering a ship.
What part of speech is take the helm?
Take the helm is a verb.
What is the past tense of take the helm?
The past tense of take the helm is took the helm.

Words near take the helm in the dictionary

  1. take the front seat
  2. take the game to
  3. take the gap
  4. take the gilt off the gingerbread
  5. take the heat
  6. take the helm
  7. take the hint
  8. take the initiative
  9. take the knee
  10. take the l
  11. take the law into one's hands

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take the helm (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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