By or bye?
by is a preposition meaning “Near or next to”; bye is a noun meaning “The position of a person or team in a tournament or competition who draws no…”. Use by as a preposition and bye as a noun. They sound the same (/baɪ/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) by is about 186 times as common as bye.
What is the difference between by and bye?
| by | bye | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | preposition, adverb, adjective, noun, interjection, prefix, suffix | noun, adjective, interjection |
| Meaning | 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 | 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 | The mailbox is by the bus stop | Craig's Crew plays the bye next week |
| Forms | bye | byes |
| Pronunciation | /baɪ/ | /baɪ/ /bɑːj/ |
| In writing | 4,571 times per million words | 25 times per million words |
Sources: by 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 by and bye
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
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, by or bye?
by appears 4,571 times per million words; bye 25 times per million words.
by 4,571 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 by vs bye?
“by vs bye” is searched about 390 times a month on Google and 50 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“bye vs by”, “by 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.