Word.ws English Dictionary

taken the helm

taken the helm is the past participle of take the helm.

Meaning of take the helm

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

Questions about taken the helm

What is taken the helm the past participle of?
Taken the helm is the past participle of take the helm.

Words near taken the helm in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taken the helm (page history and authors); 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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