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• bye
  bye

  noun

  in a tournament, the preferential status of a player or team not paired with a competitor in an early round and thus automatically advanced to play in the next round.
• bye-
  bye-

  variant of by-.

bye

¹ American  

[bahy] / baɪ /

noun

• byes
  plural

1. Sports. in a tournament, the preferential status of a player or team not paired with a competitor in an early round and thus automatically advanced to play in the next round.

   The top three seeded players received byes in the first round.

2. Golf. the holes of a stipulated course still unplayed after the match is finished.

3. Cricket. a run made on a ball not struck by the batsman.

4. something subsidiary, secondary, or out of the way.

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adjective

1. by.

idioms

1. by the bye, by the way; incidentally: Also by the by

   By the bye, how do you spell your name?

bye ² American  

[bahy] / baɪ /

interjection

1. goodbye.

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bye- ³ American  

1. variant of by-.

   bye-election.

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bye ¹ British  

/ baɪ /

noun

1. sport the situation in which a player or team in an eliminatory contest wins a preliminary round by virtue of having no opponent

2. golf one or more holes of a stipulated course that are left unplayed after the match has been decided

3. cricket a run scored off a ball not struck by the batsman: allotted to the team as an extra and not to the individual batsman See also leg bye

4. something incidental or secondary

5. incidentally; by the way: used as a sentence connector

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bye ² British  

1. informal goodbye

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• byes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of bye

1710–20; variant spelling of by in its noun sense “side way”

Explanation

If you say, "Bye!" you mean "farewell" or "so long." In other words, bye is a shorter way to say, "Goodbye." When you need a quick, informal way to bid your friend adieu, you'll probably say, "Bye!" It's shorthand for "goodbye," and when adults speak to babies and children, there's a tendency to double it: "Bye bye!" Another kind of bye is when an athlete moves directly into the next round of a competition without playing, a meaning that originated with the game of cricket.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bye bye- byes

But the Dodgers would prefer to, unlike last year, at least earn a first-round bye, and ideally home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026

It is about winning the National League West, with one of the two best records in the league, thus ensuring a first-round bye.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026

While Higgins waited in his hotel to see if he would get a bye into the semi-finals, O'Sullivan was getting fined £20,000 and being handed a suspended two-year ban.

From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2026

“We want Greenland. They don’t want to give it to us and I said, ‘OK, bye bye.’”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026

I tell Rock bye and run to the car.

From "Isaiah Dunn Is My Hero" by Kelly J. Baptist

But from then on they worked together in England and Scotland organizing, speaking, heckling members of the government, campaigning at bye- elections; going to Holloway Prison together, where they joined the Englishwomen on hunger strike.

From Jailed for Freedom by Doris Stevens

Present: FLORRIE, ISABEL, MAY, LUCILLA, KATHLEEN, DORA, MARY, and some others, who have saved time for the bye- Lecture.

From The Ethics of the Dust by John Ruskin

The two highest ranked teams will receive byes into single-match finals while the other four meet in single-match semi-finals.

From Barron's ● Nov. 16, 2025

Still, standing back he conceded the majority of his 25 byes, without which the game might already be as good as gone.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2025

At one stage an overthrow gave away five leg byes and even the numbers on the back of the tourists' iconic maroon shirts and jumpers were a random mix of yellow and blue.

From BBC ● May 29, 2025

With only eight teams there would be no byes and thus no ridiculously long layoff for the top four, which might have played a role in all of them losing their first game.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 4, 2025

"Sure an' it's our own byes comin' back to us," an Irish woman remarked, as she delightedly observed the unmistakably Gaelic countenances of a considerable proportion of the crew.

From The Victory At Sea by Burton J. Hendrick