Meanings
mayday1
plural maydays · alternative 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."
2002, Clive Cussler, Valhalla Rising, page 471 more example
The captain did a safety drill. This covered where the emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) was located, how to make a mayday call, and where the fire extinguishers were. A crew member demonstrated how to put on an immersion suit. These survival suits are waterproof full-body garments with a hood and integral three-finger gloves and boots. They are bulky and hard to get on but far more likely to save your life in cold water than a lifejacket.
2025 October 21, Rose George, “‘I knew in my head we were dying’: the last voyage of the Scandies Rose”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2025
Mayday2
Origin
- Frenchm'aider
- Englishmayday
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.
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 遇險信號 /遇险信号
- 遇險信號 /遇险信号 (yùxiǎn xìnhào)international distress signal used by shipping and aircraft
Finnish hätäkutsu
- hätäkutsuinternational distress signal used by shipping and aircraft
French mayday, SOS
- maydayinternational distress signal used by shipping and aircraft
- SOSinternational distress signal used by shipping and aircraft
Greek σήμα κινδύνου
- σήμα κινδύνου (síma kindýnou)international distress signal used by shipping and aircraft
Japanese メーデー
- メーデー (mēdē)international distress signal used by shipping and aircraft
Malay mayday
- maydayinternational distress signal used by shipping and aircraft
Russian сигна́л бе́дствия, радиосигнал бе́дствия
- сигна́л бе́дствия (signál bédstvija)international distress signal used by shipping and aircraft
- радиосигнал бе́дствия (radiosignal bédstvija)international distress signal used by shipping and aircraft
- сигна́л "терплю бедствие" (signál "terplju bedstvije")international distress signal used by shipping and aircraft
Thai เมย์เดย์
- เมย์เดย์ (mee-dee)international distress signal used by shipping and aircraft
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with mayday
All rhymes →Cite this entry
mayday. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mayday
“mayday.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mayday. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mayday,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mayday.
Source: mayday on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.