Assist
Part of speech: verb
Definition: Archaic To stand (at a place) or to (an opinion), to attend a theatrical performance. To help. To make a pass that leads directly towards scoring.
Part of speech: noun
Definition: a statistic used in different sports to quantify the act of helping another player score points or goals; in baseball, an assist is defensive, allowing a teammate to record a putout.
Example sentence: The private sector complains that some of the agencies set up to advise and assist them in protecting their networks, such as CESG, are good at gathering information, but reluctant to disseminate it. This culture of information hoarding has to be changed.
Assistance
Part of speech: noun
Definition: Aid; help; the act or result of assisting.
Example sentence: In 1988, when democracy was restored, the military establishment was still very powerful. The extremist groups were still there. And when the aid and assistance to Pakistan was cut, we had to adopt harsh economic policies. So in a way, it showed that democracy doesn't pay, and the military was able to reassert itself.