by-product
Americannoun
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by-products
plural
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a secondary or incidental product, as in a process of manufacture.
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the result of another action, often unforeseen or unintended.
noun
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a secondary or incidental product of a manufacturing process
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a side effect
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of by-product
First recorded in 1900–05
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:
The Fed was moving to counter that slowdown, with any lift to stocks a by-product.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026
The majority of the UK's CO2 is imported from Europe but it is often produced as a by-product when companies make fertiliser, which needs natural gas.
From BBC ● Apr. 25, 2026
Lynas however, says its by-product from rare earth refining produces a non-toxic, non-radioactive magnesium-rich gypsum and an iron phosphate with a very low level of naturally occurring radioactive material.
From Barron's ● Apr. 22, 2026
Through it all, however, West struggled with depression and a sense of self-loathing, and had trouble with intimacy, much of it a by-product of a hardscrabble childhood in West Virginia with a domineering father.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2026
She and her generation were the first in the history of the world to come of age with the possibility of human extinction as a by-product of human ingenuity.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
With the latest biotech tools, companies are taking by-products of the food industry, that are currently discarded or have little value, and using fermentation to turn them into something useful.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026
The licence was issued as environmental watchdogs such as Greenpeace raised concerns over the management of radioactive by-products.
From Barron's ● Apr. 22, 2026
The company’s strong performance in by-products such as lead and zinc was driven by strong grades at its Fresnillo mine in Mexico, they say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026
Fear and suspicion are, of course, common by-products of war.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2024
On the other hand, organic Rosie was a tasty bird, with more flavor than mass-market birds fed on a diet of antibiotics and animal by-products.
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
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.
