help desk

noun

plural help desks

: a department or person that provides assistance and information usually for electronic or computer problems

Adding a work account is easier than it used to be, but if you're a technophobe, or if your company requires special security settings, call your help desk.

—Jeremy Caplan

—often hyphenated when used before another noun

help-desk questions

Pleas to reset forgotten passwords account for half of help-desk calls to Web sites, says RSA Security.

—Victoria Murphy Barret

Examples of help desk in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

There was no help desk, no shipping tool, no tracking, no returns solution. — Arthur Zaczkiewicz, Footwear News, 13 Oct. 2026

Somewhere today, someone will call a corporate help desk and say they are locked out. — Caryn Seidman Becker, Fortune, 9 Oct. 2026

The group offers legal resources—including how-to guides on all aspects of the process, regular updates about changes to procedures, and a digital help desk staffed by lawyers—to, so far, more than 1 million immigrants from 175 countries. — Philip Wang, Time, 30 Sep. 2026

That foundation can then be used to re-establish identity confidence before high-risk actions such as account recovery, device enrollment, help desk support or sensitive access. — Michael Engle, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1980, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for help desk

• burlesque
• grotesque
• arabesque
• picaresque
• romanesque
• statuesque
• carnivalesque

Kids Definition

help desk

noun

: a department or person that provides help or information usually for electronic or computer problems