goodbye
Americaninterjection
noun
-
goodbyes
plural
noun
-
a leave-taking; parting
they prolonged their goodbyes for a few more minutes
-
a farewell
they said goodbyes to each other
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of goodbye
First recorded in 1565–75; contraction of God be with ye
Explanation
Goodbye is a parting word, something you say to other people when you're leaving. You might say goodbye to all your favorite teachers on your last day of high school. A goodbye means that someone's departing: you say goodbye to your parents when you go off to college, and you also say goodbye to guests when they leave after a visit. The original goodbye, dating from the 1570s, was godbwye, which was a contraction of the farewell phrase "God be with ye!"
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Death is big business in Ivory Coast, where families are expected to say goodbye to their loved ones with massive, music-fuelled feasts tinged with moments of both joy and sadness.
From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2026
But an emotional Velshi recalled that moment differently in June 2026, as he said goodbye to his old weekend show’s audience.
From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2026
The family discovered he had recorded a goodbye video at the start of his military service, which he sent to his wife to be passed on to his mother in the event of his death.
From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2026
Say goodbye, though, to Tesla, which will now inevitably disappear forever into SpaceX and Musk’s dream of a galactic mega-entity.
From Slate ● Oct. 19, 2026
How will I say goodbye to the only home I’ve ever known?
From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar
Then, on the earnings call, Hood priced the goodbyes.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2026
By the time the night was over, and Dailor was alone out front saying his goodbyes and tossing drumsticks into the crowd, Mastodon showed it was still surviving and thriving.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026
A Harvard Business School study of the six most popular AI companion apps globally found emotional manipulation tactics were used during goodbyes roughly 37% to 43% of the time.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Relatives crouched on the floor to say their final goodbyes to loved ones, kissing the faces of the dead between sobs.
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
She was with her new mates as usual, and so I hung around on the edge of the group, feeling awkward, while they all said their goodbyes.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
