goodbye
Americaninterjection
noun
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.
Goodbye to the credo: “Rain or shine, I never miss a Sunday morning at church.”
From The Wall Street Journal • May 2, 2026
An art project called the Goodbye Line prompts passersby to make a collect call and say goodbye — to a loved one, a pet or maybe a part of themselves.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 4, 2026
Winslet's son Joe Anders, 21, not only wrote the screenplay for Goodbye June, but last year appeared alongside his mum in Lee, and had a small role in 1917, directed by his father Sam Mendes.
From BBC • Dec. 10, 2025
At a grand piano in a hotel in Beverly Hills, as he plays us a piece he calls Goodbye, it's clear an artistic soul exudes from his every pore.
From BBC • Nov. 3, 2025
Goodbye to the three electric lights in the ceiling that seemed always, no matter where you sat, to cast the shadow of your head over the page you were writing on.
From "The City of Ember" by Jeanne DuPrau
Definitions 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.
