passer-by
/ˈpɑː.sə.baɪ/
"passer-by" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“passer-by” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A person who is passing by (that is, walking past).
Corpus desk
Index EN-passer-by · passer-by · English
passer-by · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | passer-by |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɑː.sə.baɪ/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “passer-by” in English
Rare enough to double-check
passer-by is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈpɑː.sə.baɪ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A person who is passing by (that is, walking past).".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for passer-by, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From passer + by. Compare bystander. The correct English form is passer-by, spelled P-A-S-S-E-R---B-Y.
Definition
- 1A person who is passing by (that is, walking past).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how passer-by appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
When he tripped and fell in the street, several kind passers-by helped him up.
With a little manœuvring they contrived to meet on the doorstep which was […] in a boiling stream of passers-by, hurrying business people speeding past in a flurry of fumes and dust in the bright haze.
Etymology
From passer + by. Compare bystander.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.