mayday

See also: May Day

Translingual

Etymology

Borrowed 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.

Pronunciation

• English:
  • IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪ.deɪ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

• Hyphenation: may‧day

Interjection

mayday

1. (radio) emergency, need assistance
   • 2004, Ken Wishaw, Helicopter Rescue: The true story of Australia's first full-time chopper doctor, page 82:

     'Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!' came the call.

Usage notes

When making a distress call, mayday is said three times in succession (mayday, mayday, mayday) to signal that the message is an actual distress signal, as opposed to a message about a mayday signal.

"Mayday" is deemed to include "All stations", so no called station is mentioned -- on a voice-only radio, a marine mayday call starts "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday; this is [boat name], this is [boat name], this is [boat name]; [call sign and Maritime Mobile Service Identity]; Mayday, [boat name, call sign and MMSI]; [location]; [nature of distress]; [assistance required]; [number of people on board]; [other useful info]". Although notionally sent to "all stations", it is expected that the coastguard will answer. If they do not answer within 30 seconds, then there are procedures for response by other ships who hear the call.

Aircraft mayday signals differ in details, including reduced identification requirements, because in nearly every case Air Traffic Control already have information about the type of aircraft the call sign belongs to, and its location. An aircraft may need to be handed off from one controller to another, and it is recommended that they sign in to each new ATC as "Mayday [call sign]" to ensure the new controller recognises that they are the emergency aircraft.

Synonyms

• SOS

Translations

The call mayday is the international standard emergency call. However, many local variations also exist.

emergency, need assistance

• Catalan: socors (ca) m, auxili (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 遇險信號 / 遇险信号 (yùxiǎn xìnhào)

• Finnish: mayday
• French: au secours ! (fr), à l'aide ! (fr), mayday (fr)
• Georgian: მიშველეთ (mišvelet), დამეხმარეთ (damexmaret), მიშველეთǃ (mišveletǃ), დამეხმარეთǃ (damexmaretǃ)
• German: Hilfe! (de), Mayday!
• Greek: βοήθεια (el) (voḯtheia)
• Italian: aiuto ! (it)
• Japanese: メーデー (ja) (mēdē)
• Korean: 메이데이 (ko) (meidei)
• Russian: помоги́те (ru) (pomogíte), терплю́ бе́дствие (terpljú bédstvije), на по́мощь (na pómoščʹ), мэйдэ́й (mɛjdɛ́j), мэдэ́ (mɛdɛ́)
• Serbo-Croatian: upomoć
• Slovene: na pomoč
• Spanish: ¡socorro! (es), ¡auxilio! (es), ¡ayuda! (es)
• Turkish: medet! (tr)

See also

• pan-pan

English

WOTD – 1 May 2010

Alternative forms

• Mayday

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪ̯deɪ̯/, [ˈmeɪ̯deɪ̯]

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈmæɪ̯deɪ̯/, [ˈmæ̝ɪ̯dæ̝ɪ̯]

  • Audio:

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪdeɪ
• Hyphenation: may‧day

Noun

mayday (plural maydays)

1. An international distress signal used by shipping and aircraft.
   • 2002, Clive Cussler, Valhalla Rising, page 47:

     "Odd that she hasn't sent out a Mayday."
     "That is curious. Her radio must be disabled."

   • 2025 October 21, Rose George, “‘I knew in my head we were dying’: the last voyage of the Scandies Rose”, in The Guardian‎^[1], archived from the original on 3 November 2025:

     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.

Related terms

• distress signal

Descendants

• → French: mayday
• → Japanese: メーデー (mēdē)

Translations

international distress signal used by shipping and aircraft

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 遇險信號 / 遇险信号 (yùxiǎn xìnhào)

• Finnish: hätäkutsu
• French: mayday (fr), SOS (fr)
• Greek: σήμα κινδύνου n (síma kindýnou)
• Japanese: メーデー (ja) (mēdē)
• Russian: сигна́л бе́дствия (signál bédstvija), радиосигнал бе́дствия (radiosignal bédstvija), сигна́л "терплю бедствие" (signál "terplju bedstvije")

See also

• pan-pan
• SOS