Good bye or goodbye?
good bye is an interjection meaning “Alternative form of goodbye”; goodbye is an interjection meaning “Farewell; a formula used to another person or persons when the speaker, writer…”. good bye is written as two words and goodbye as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between good bye and goodbye?
| good bye | goodbye | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | interjection, noun | interjection, noun, verb |
| Meaning | Alternative form of goodbye | Farewell; a formula used to another person or persons when the speaker, writer, or person addressed is departing An utterance of goodbye, the wishing of farewell to someone To say goodbye; to wish somebody farewell on parting |
| Example | none recorded | Goodbye! - Goodbye, Anna |
| Forms | good-byes | good-bye |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ɡʊdˈbaɪ/ /ɡɵdˈbɑj/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 20 times per million words |
Sources: good bye and goodbye 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 good bye and goodbye
good bye
- 1
Alternative form of goodbye
- 2
Alternative form of goodbye
- 3
Alternative form of goodbye
goodbye
- 1
Farewell; a formula used to another person or persons when the speaker, writer, or person addressed is departing
Goodbye! - Goodbye, Anna
- 2
An utterance of goodbye, the wishing of farewell to someone
They made their good-byes
- 3
To say goodbye; to wish somebody farewell on parting
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, good bye or goodbye?
good bye is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; goodbye 20 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 good bye vs goodbye?
“good bye vs goodbye” is searched about 10 times a month on Bing (Google reports it together with close variants, so it has no figure of its own) in the United States.
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.