Which to use
“beyond” is a preposition and “by” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,195
- “beyond” frequency rank
- #1,627
- “by” frequency rank
- 22822
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | beyond | by |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | über … hinaus, jenseits/jenseitig (von) etwas | Stadt |
Letter map: beyond vs by
Shared letters muted; letters that set beyond and by apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Role in the sentence - beyond and by
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: beyond is apreposition and byanoun. On the page they differ by 4 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22822, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
beyond is recorded at frequency rank #21,195, classified as aprep, pronounced […]. by is at rank #1,627, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 22822, this pair ranks #1,869,314 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of beyond vs by
Shared letters: by. Private to "beyond": deno. Private to "by": -.
"beyond" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCC · "by" · 2 letters · shape CV
Known mistypes of this pair
- beyond ← bbeyond · beoynd · beynod · beyodn · beyondd · beyonnd · beyyond · byeond
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "beyond" for "by" ever safe?
Frequency check: "beyond" vs "by" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pair "beyond" vs "by" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "beyond" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "by" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,869,314 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "beyond" and "by" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "beyond vs puzzles". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #1,869,314 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.