Buy or bye?
buy is a verb meaning “To obtain (something) in exchange for money or goods”; bye is a noun meaning “The position of a person or team in a tournament or competition who draws no…”. Use buy as a verb and bye as a noun (buy is also a noun: “Something which is bought; a purchase”). They sound the same (/baɪ/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) buy is about 8.5 times as common as bye.
What is the difference between buy and bye?
| buy | bye | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, noun | noun, adjective, interjection |
| Meaning | To obtain (something) in exchange for money or goods To obtain, especially by some sacrifice Something which is bought; a purchase | The position of a person or team in a tournament or competition who draws no opponent in a particular round so advances to the next round unopposed, or is… An extra scored when the batsmen take runs after the ball has passed the striker without hitting either the bat or the batsman Out of the way; remote |
| Example | Who'd Father buy the car for? He bought it for me, not for you | Craig's Crew plays the bye next week |
| Forms | buys, buying, bought | byes |
| Pronunciation | /baɪ/ [baɪ] [bɑj] | /baɪ/ /bɑːj/ |
| In writing | 209 times per million words | 25 times per million words |
Sources: buy and bye 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 bye
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
bye
- 1
The position of a person or team in a tournament or competition who draws no opponent in a particular round so advances to the next round unopposed, or is awarded points for a win in a league table…
Craig's Crew plays the bye next week
- 2
Out of the way; remote
- 3
colloquialGoodbye
- 4
A command to exit a session
- 5
Eye dialect spelling of boy
- 6
informalGoodbye: used when the speaker or addressee is departing
Sure. Okay, ’bye. – ‘Bye
- 7
An extra scored when the batsmen take runs after the ball has passed the striker without hitting either the bat or the batsman
- 8
Secondary; supplementary
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 bye?
buy appears 209 times per million words; bye 25 times per million words.
buy 209 times per million wordsbye 25 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 bye?
“buy vs bye” is searched about 30 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“bye vs buy”, “buy or bye”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.