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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

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Etymology

Origin of bye

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

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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

Indianapolis is coming off its strongest performance of the season, but it’s a challenge to go from a London game to Pittsburgh with no bye.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026

His injury isn’t believed to be serious, though, with the team’s bye next week giving him a chance at possibly returning without missing a game.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026

This is their fourth with a bye — after going through the wild card last year.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

Freeman has a plan for the bye week that he hopes will set him in the right direction for the playoffs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026

Otto said, “You’re not going to say bye to Sheed?”

From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles

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

New England and Seattle chase top seeds and first-round playoff byes in this weekend's penultimate games of the NFL season while six clubs fight for the last three post-season berths.

From Barron's ● Dec. 26, 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

“And it’s mighty little difference that will make, as Terry McCarthy said when he had the ch’ice of foighting two Tipperary byes or three Corkonians.”

From The Launch Boys' Adventures in Northern Waters by Burton Donnel Hughes

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