Standard Lemma guide

behoof

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /bɪˈhuːf/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -uːf

1

noun

Meaning 1

That which is advantageous to a person; behalf, interest, advantage, profit, benefit.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, dated, uncountable

Examples

  • 1676, Joseph Glanvill, Essays on Several Important Subjects in Philosophy and Religion, London: John Baker & Henry Mortlock, Essay 7, “The Summe of My Lord Bacon’s NEW ATLANTIS,” p. 58, [...] very useful for a Divine, and like to be of more behoof to him, than all the tedious volumes of the Schoolmen [...]
  • 1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, Men’s Wives, New York: Appleton, “The Ravenswing,” Chapter 4, p. 119, Poor Larkins had no one to make epigrams in her behoof; her mother was at home tending the younger ones, her father abroad following the studies of his profession, she had but one protector, as she thought, and that one was Baroski.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Middle English behoof, behof, from Old English behōf, from Proto-West Germanic *bihōf. Akin to Dutch behoef, German Behuf (“necessity”), Danish behov (“requirement”) (from Middle Low German). Related to have and heave.

Across languages

Translations

3 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: полза (polza) — advantage or benefit
  • Bulgarian: изгода (izgoda) — advantage or benefit
  • Italian: vantaggio — advantage or benefit