mayday
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mayday¹
- /ˈmeɪ̯deɪ̯/
- [ˈmeɪ̯deɪ̯]
- /ˈmæɪ̯deɪ̯/ Australia
- [ˈmæ̝ɪ̯dæ̝ɪ̯] Australia
Rhymes with -eɪdeɪ
Where it comes from
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.
noun maydays · Mayday
- An international distress signal used by shipping and aircraft. "Odd that she hasn't sent out a Mayday." "That is curious. Her radio must be disabled."
Mayday²
Translations
Every language
noun international distress signal used by shipping and aircraft
| 日本語 | メーデー mēdē |
|---|---|
| 中文 | 遇險信號 /遇险信号 yùxiǎn xìnhào |
| Français | mayday, SOS |
| Ελληνικά | σήμα κινδύνου síma kindýnou |
| Русский | сигна́л бе́дствия signál bédstvija, радиосигнал бе́дствия radiosignal bédstvija, сигна́л "терплю бедствие" signál "terplju bedstvije" |
Talk about this word "mayday." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/mayday. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. mayday. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/mayday "mayday." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/mayday.Cite this
@misc{mayday_2026,
title = {mayday},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/mayday},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
