by no means
UK/baɪ nəʊ ˈmiːnz//baɪ noʊ ˈminz/
by no means prepositional phrase: certainly not; definitely not; not at all.
Prepositional phrase
- Certainly not; definitely not; not at all.
- By no means am I suggesting that euthanasia should be outlawed, but rather that we should look at its inherent risks.
- Is that all you’ve got to say? ―By no means. Let me explain further.
- Synonyms:
- by no manner of means, by no stretch, by no stretch of the imagination, in no way, never ever, never in a million years, not a chance, not by any manner of means, not by any means, not by a long way
- Antonyms:
- by all means, by any means
by no means meaning in Bengali, Malayalam, Kannada and Sanskrit
by no means in Bengali
- by no means
- কিছুতেই না kichutei na
by no means in Malayalam
- not at all, in no way, not in the least
- തീർച്ചയായും അല്ല, ഇല്ല, തീരെയില്ല, ഒട്ടുമില്ല, തീരുമാനം, ഒരുവിധത്തിലും സാദ്ധ്യമല്ല
by no means in Kannada
- ಹೇಗೂ ಇಲ್ಲ, ಇಲ್ಲವೇ ಇಲ್ಲ, ಏನೇ ಆದರೂ, ಏನೇ ಮಾಡಿದರೂ, ಖಂಡಿತವಾಗಿಯೂ ಇಲ್ಲ
by no means in Sanskrit
- certainly not
- नहि nahi
More languagesFewer languages
- by no means in Arabic
- أَبَدًا ʔabadan
- by no means in Persian
- به هیچ وجه be hêč vajh
- by no means in Vietnamese
- ai đời
Examples of by no means in a sentence
- Cecilia, thanking him for the offer, ſaid ſhe meant novv to make her acknovvledgments for all the trouble he had already taken, but by no means purpoſed to give him any more.1782, [Frances Burney], “A Wrangling”, in Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress. […], volume V, London: […] T[homas] Payne and Son […], and...
- It is by no means as the greatest of poets that Goethe deserves the pride and praise of his German countrymen.1879, Matthew Arnold, “A French Critic on Goethe”, in Mixed Essays, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 311:
Synonyms of by no means
- by no manner of means
- by no stretch
- by no stretch of the imagination
- in no way
- never ever
- never in a million years
- not a chance
- not by any manner of means
- not by any means
- not by a long way
5 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Origin of by no means
From by + no + means (“condition or instrument to achieve a result”).
Words that rhyme with by no means
13 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about by no means
- What does by no means mean?
- By no means means certainly not; definitely not; not at all.
- What is by no means in Bengali?
- By no means in Bengali is কিছুতেই না (kichutei na). See By no means meaning in Bengali.
- How do you use by no means in a sentence?
- Cecilia, thanking him for the offer, ſaid ſhe meant novv to make her acknovvledgments for all the trouble he had already taken, but by no means purpoſed to give him any more.
- What part of speech is by no means?
- By no means is a prepositional phrase.
- How do you pronounce by no means?
- By no means is pronounced /baɪ nəʊ ˈmiːnz/ (UK).
Words near by no means in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: by no means (page history and authors); কিছুতেই না (Bengali) (page history and authors); by no means (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); by no means (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-by no means.wav, En-au-by no means.ogg.
Cite this entry: “by no means.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/by_no_means. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.