Standard Lemma guide
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
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noun
An international distress signal used by shipping and aircraft.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Alternative form of mayday.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of, alternative
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Misspelling of May Day.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of, misspelling
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
an internationally recognized distress signal via radiotelephone (from the French m'aider)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: distress signal, distress call
History
From the distress signal mayday, from French m'aider, short for Venez m'aider! (“Come to help me!”). The term was conceived in the early 1920s by Frederick Stanley Mockford, officer-in-charge of radio at Croydon Airport in England. He had been asked to think of a word that would indicate distress and would easily be understood by all pilots and ground staff in an emergency. Since much of the air traffic at the time was between Croydon and Le Bourget Airport in Paris, he proposed the term "mayday," the phonetic equivalent of the French m'aider.
Across languages
11 source translations are retained for this English entry.
