Word.ws English Dictionary

by-purpose

by-purpose noun: an indirect or concealed purpose or design.

Noun

by-purpose (plural by-purposes)

  1. An indirect or concealed purpose or design.

Forms of by-purpose

pluralby-purposes

Origin of by-purpose

From by- + purpose.

Questions about by-purpose

What does by-purpose mean?
By-purpose means an indirect or concealed purpose or design.
What part of speech is by-purpose?
By-purpose is a noun.
What is the plural of by-purpose?
The plural of by-purpose is by-purposes.

Words near by-purpose in the dictionary

  1. by-plots
  2. by-poll
  3. by-polls
  4. by-product
  5. by-products
  6. by-purpose
  7. by-purposes
  8. by-report
  9. by-reports
  10. by-respect
  11. by-respects

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: by-purpose (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “by-purpose.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/by-purpose. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.