goodbye

good·bye/ɡʊdˈbaɪ/interjection, noun, verb

goodbye is spelled G-O-O-D-B-Y-E: 7 letters and 2 syllables (good·bye). It appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,302nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “good-bye vs goodbye” about 10 times a month (Bing, United States). As an interjection, goodbye means “Farewell; a formula used to another person or persons when the speaker, writer, or person addressed is departing” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in goodbye?

Letters	7: G-O-O-D-B-Y-E
Syllables	2: good·bye
In writing	20 times per million words; the 4,302nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search
Pairs people search	good-bye vs goodbye good-by vs goodbye
Rhymes with	dry sky cry deny more

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is goodbye?

Goodbye appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,302nd most frequent word form in the list.

goodbye0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce goodbye?

UK /ɡʊdˈbaɪ/
British /ɡɵdˈbɑj/
US /ɡʊdˈbaɪ/

Goodbye has 2 syllables, split good·bye in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-goodbye.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Pvanp7-goodbye.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with goodbye

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

good-bye vs goodbye10 B

good-by vs goodbye0 B

Also written: good-bye (one word or two), good-by.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with goodbye?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as goodbye from its last stressed vowel (/aɪ/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of goodbye

good-bye
good bye
g'bye
bye informal
'bye informal
goodbyes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
goodbying participle, present
goodbyeing participle, present
goodbyed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does goodbye mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

interjection

1
Farewell; a formula used to another person or persons when the speaker, writer, or person addressed is departing.
Goodbye! - Goodbye, Anna.

noun

1
An utterance of goodbye, the wishing of farewell to someone.
They made their good-byes.

verb

1
To say goodbye; to wish somebody farewell on parting.