Buy or by?
buy is a verb meaning “To obtain (something) in exchange for money or goods”; by is a preposition meaning “Near or next to”. Use buy as a verb and by as a preposition. They sound the same (/baɪ/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) by is about 22 times as common as buy.
What is the difference between buy and by?
| buy | by | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, noun | preposition, adverb, adjective, noun, interjection, prefix, suffix |
| Meaning | To obtain (something) in exchange for money or goods To obtain, especially by some sacrifice Something which is bought; a purchase | Near or next to From one side of something to the other, passing close by; past Along a path which runs past someone or something |
| Example | Who'd Father buy the car for? He bought it for me, not for you | The mailbox is by the bus stop |
| Forms | buys, buying, bought | bye |
| Pronunciation | /baɪ/ [baɪ] [bɑj] | /baɪ/ |
| In writing | 209 times per million words | 4,571 times per million words |
Sources: buy and by in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of buy and by
buy
- 1
To obtain (something) in exchange for money or goods
Who'd Father buy the car for? He bought it for me, not for you
- 2
Something which is bought; a purchase
At only $30, the second-hand kitchen table was a great buy
- 3
To obtain, especially by some sacrifice
I've bought material comfort by foregoing my dreams
- 4
To bribe
He tried to buy me with gifts, but I wouldn't give up my beliefs
- 5
To be equivalent to in value
The dollar doesn't buy as much as it used to
- 6
informalto accept as true; to believe
I'm not going to buy your stupid excuses anymore!
- 7
To make a purchase or purchases, to treat (for a drink, meal or gift)
She buys for Federated
- 8
slangTo make a bluff, usually a large one
Smith tried to buy the pot on the river with a huge bluff
by
- 1
Near or next to
The mailbox is by the bus stop
- 2
Along a path which runs past someone or something
I watched the parade as it passed by
- 3
Out of the way, off to one side
a by path; a by room
- 4
Alternative form of bye
- 5
datedDated form of bye (“goodbye”)
- 6
Abbreviation of attribution
- 7
Town or city
bylaw
- 8
Near or roundabout
bystander, bypass
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, buy or by?
buy appears 209 times per million words; by 4,571 times per million words.
buy 209 times per million wordsby 4,571 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search buy vs by?
“buy vs by” is searched about 70 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“by vs buy”, “buy or by”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.