Word.ws English Dictionary

byword

/ˈbaɪ.wə(ɹ)d/US/ˈbaɪ.wɚd/

byword noun: a proverb or proverbial expression, common saying; a frequently used word or phrase.

Noun

byword (plural bywords)

  1. A proverb or proverbial expression, common saying; a frequently used word or phrase.
  2. A characteristic word or expression; a word or phrase associated with a person or group.
  3. Someone or something that stands as an example (i.e. metonymically) for something else, by having some of that something's characteristic traits.
    • Illustrious unfortunates attract a wider sympathy, not because their griefs are more intense, but because, being set on lofty pedestals, they the better serve mankind as instances and bywords of calamity.1846, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Christmas Banquet”, in Mosses from an Old Manse
  4. An object of notoriety or contempt, scorn or derision.
    • He hath made me also a byword of the people […]1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 17:6
    • "I know you and Harry are inseparable. Surely for that reason, if for none other, you should not have made his sister's name a by-word."1890, Oscar Wilde, chapter XII, in The Picture of Dorian Gray
  5. A nickname or epithet.

byword meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

byword in Tamil

பழமொழி, வழக்குச் சொல், பழிச்சொல், அவப்பெயர், ஏளனத்துக்குரிய அடைமொழி

byword in Urdu

کہاوت, ضرب المثل

byword in Malayalam

perfect example, classic case, model
ദൃഷ്ടാന്തം, മാതൃക, ശരിയായ മാതൃക, നിദർശനം, മൂർത്തീകരണം, അത്യുദാത്തമാതൃക
slogan, motto, maxim
മുദ്രാവാക്യം, ചൊല്ല്, പരിഹാസച്ചൊല്ല്, പരസ്യവാചകം, ആദർശവചനം, പ്രമാണസൂക്തം

byword in Kannada

ನಾಣ್ಣುಡಿ, ಗಾದೆ, ಪ್ರಸಿದ್ಧ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ, ಕುಪ್ರಸಿದ್ಧ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ

Forms of byword

pluralbywords

Origin of byword

From Middle English byword, byworde (“proverb”), from Old English bīword, bīwyrd, bīwyrde (“proverb, household word", also "adverb”), from Proto-West Germanic *bīwurdī, equivalent to by- + word. Compare Latin proverbium, which byword may possibly be a translation of. Cognate with Old High German pīwurti (“proverb”). Compare also Old English bīspel (“proverb, example”), bīcwide (“byword, proverb, tale, fable”), Dutch bijwoord (“adverb”).

Questions about byword

What does byword mean?
Byword means a proverb or proverbial expression, common saying; a frequently used word or phrase.
What is byword in Tamil?
Byword in Tamil is பழமொழி, வழக்குச் சொல், பழிச்சொல். See Byword meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is byword?
Byword is a noun.
How do you pronounce byword?
Byword is pronounced /ˈbaɪ.wə(ɹ)d/ (UK).
What is the plural of byword?
The plural of byword is bywords.

Words near byword in the dictionary

  1. byways open to all traffic
  2. Bywell
  3. bywoner
  4. bywoners
  5. Bywong
  6. byword
  7. bywords
  8. bywork
  9. byworks
  10. Byz
  11. byzaanchies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: byword (page history and authors); byword (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); byword (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); byword (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); byword (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vanderdecken-byword.wav.

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