by-product

American  

[bahy-prod-uhkt] / ˈbaɪˌprɒd əkt /

noun

• by-products
  plural

1. a secondary or incidental product, as in a process of manufacture.

2. the result of another action, often unforeseen or unintended.

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by-product British  

noun

1. a secondary or incidental product of a manufacturing process

2. a side effect

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by-product Scientific  

/ bī′prŏd′əkt /

1. Something produced in the process of making something else. When plants produce carbohydrates by photosynthesis, oxygen is released as a by-product. Asphalt and paraffin are by-products of the process of refining crude oil into gasoline.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• by-products
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of by-product

First recorded in 1900–05

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

by-product by-products

Its unit-cost guidance was lowered slightly to reflect strong by-product prices and cost management efforts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026

There’s even a computer-generated Elon, a by-product of Gibney not securing a face-to-face interview with the tycoon himself.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026

Instead, they are a by-product of the ear's physiological sound amplification process.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 19, 2026

The government has provided funding to reactivate the Ensus bioethanol plant, which makes CO2 as a by-product, in order to shore up supplies of the gas.

From BBC ● Apr. 25, 2026

Citigroup and Merrill Lynch and others sat on huge piles of the things when the market crashed, but these were the by-product of their CDO machines.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

Countries have been wrestling with what to do with dangerous nuclear by-products since the first plants were built in the 1950s.

From Barron's ● Jun. 1, 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

A “master plan” had been drawn up to improve health and education, transport connections and recreational facilities for the island’s residents, and to develop the fishing sector and the exploitation of coconut by-products, he said.

From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2024

Fear and suspicion are, of course, common by-products of war.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2024

If this is all that atoms have, then the qualities that we perceive in the world—colour, taste, smell, sound, texture, temperature—must be by-products of size, shape and movement.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

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