Word.ws English Dictionary

by the way of

by the way of is the alternative form of by way of.

Meaning of by way of

Phrase

by way of

  1. By the route of.
    • From Shakespeare to Milton by way of the English Bible, our language has been shaped by humanist ideas.
    Synonyms:
    through, via
  2. For the purpose of; as a means of; as an instance of; as a type or form of.
    • By way of apology, he tried to be gallant.
  3. (UK, often) Possessing the characteristics, nature, or standing of; in the state or condition of.
    • Thoreau, too, come to think of it, was, by way of being a prophet, a pioneer in this Emancipation of Man from Bothery.1898, H. G. Wells, “The Trouble of Life”, in Certain Personal Matters, pages 16–17

Questions about by the way of

What is by the way of the alternative form of?
By the way of is the alternative form of by way of.

Words near by the way of in the dictionary

  1. by the sound of it
  2. by the strong hand
  3. by the time
  4. by the ton
  5. by the way
  6. by the way of
  7. by their fruits you will know them
  8. by thunder
  9. by Toutatis
  10. by trade
  11. by turns

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: by the way of (page history and authors); by way of (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 the way of.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/by_the_way_of. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.