by the by
by the by prepositional phrase: used to introduce a new topic; incidentally, by the way.
Prepositional phrase
- Used to introduce a new topic; incidentally, by the way.
- Now, Mrs. Clarke was one of those to whom caps and crape were the very morality of mourning—she was not the only one, by the by, with whom propriety stands for principle,...1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter I, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 70-71
- She could not get it open, and after all my display, I had to take the Curate (whose name, by-the-by, I did not catch) round the side entrance.1892, George Grossmith, Weedon Grossmith, chapter 1, in The Diary of a Nobody
Adjective
by the by (comparative more by the by, superlative most by the by)
- Incidental; unplanned.
- These sudden rains. Not tropical - with lightning, thunder, great release after hours of tension. But more nonchalant, more "by-the-by." As if the clouds, rushing to get somewhere else, were to drop some rain in passing.1990, Susan Sherman, The color of the heart: writing from struggle & change, 1959-1990
- And in the course of interviews on this subject, he is given to denouncing methadone largely on the basis that it was originally called adolphine after Adolf Hitler. That this is an urban myth only peddled by the Church of Scientology is by-the-by.2008 December 19, Marina Hyde, “Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall, by Tom Cruise”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
- Synonyms:
- accidental, causeless, random, accidentary, adventitious, by accident, casual, chanceable, fortuitous, incidental
by the by meaning in Tamil and Kannada
by the by in Tamil
- இதற்கிடையில்
by the by in Kannada
- ಪ್ರಾಸಂಗಿಕವಾಗಿ, ಅನುಷಂಗಿಕವಾಗಿ
Examples of by the by in a sentence
- By the by, I like Worcester's Shrub Hill station, a three-platform affair of 1850 which may look tired but has character and a splendid frontage on a sunny day.2023 January 11, Stephen Roberts, “Bradshaw's Britain: castles and cathedrals”, in RAIL, number 974, page 58:
- After that, the fact of a Moussa Dembélé double cancelling out Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s opener seemed by the by.2019 July 28, Paul MacInnes, “Alexandre Lacazette suffers ankle injury in Arsenal friendly defeat by Lyon”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
Synonyms of by the by
- accidental
- causeless
- random
- adventitious
- by accident
- casual
- fortuitous
- incidental
- lippening
- occasional
7 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of by the by
| Prepositional phrase | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | by the bye |
| alternative form | by-the-by |
| alternative form | by-the-bye |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more by the by |
| superlative | most by the by |
Origin of by the by
The second "by" is a noun meaning "a secondary issue". Phrase used since the 17th century.
Questions about by the by
- What does by the by mean?
- By the by means used to introduce a new topic; incidentally, by the way.
- What is by the by in Tamil?
- By the by in Tamil is இதற்கிடையில். See By the by meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use by the by in a sentence?
- By the by, I like Worcester's Shrub Hill station, a three-platform affair of 1850 which may look tired but has character and a splendid frontage on a sunny day.
- What part of speech is by the by?
- By the by can be a prepositional phrase or an adjective.
Words near by the by in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: by the by (page history and authors); by the by (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); by the by (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:
Cite this entry: “by the by.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/by_the_by. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.