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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

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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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

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

"They don't want to give it to us. And I said, 'bye, bye.'"

From Barron's • Apr. 6, 2026

Speaking of observantness, I noticed that when you said bye earlier, you actually said, and I quote, “bye forever, I guess.”

From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows