thereby
/ðɛɹˈbaɪ/adverb
thereby is spelled T-H-E-R-E-B-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is therby: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 21 of all searches for the word. Thereby is an adverb meaning “By it; by that; by that means, or as a consequence of that”.
How many letters and syllables are in thereby?
| Letters | 7: T-H-E-R-E-B-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 11 times per million words; the 6,784th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, therby, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 do you spell thereby?
Thereby is spelled T-H-E-R-E-B-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 21 of the searches for thereby in either form.
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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is thereby?
Thereby appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,784th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce thereby?
- US /ðɛɹˈbaɪ/
- UK /ðɛəˈbaɪ/
Thereby has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-thereby.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with thereby?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as thereby 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).
What does thereby mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
By it; by that; by that means, or as a consequence of that.
I enrolled in Old English classes and thereby learned much about Germanic languages.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Thereby in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense by that:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | ainsi, de ce fait, par là |
| German | dadurch, damit, deswegen, darum, deshalb |
| Portuguese | com isso, assim, desta forma, dessa forma, por isso |
| Spanish | así, de ese modo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does thereby come from?
From Middle English therby, from Old English ðǣrbig, equivalent to there + by. Compare the parallel formation of German dabei.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).