farewell

Syllables: fare·wellUK/fɛəˈwɛl//fɛɹˈwɛl/

farewell noun: a wish of happiness or safety at parting, especially a permanent departure.

Noun

farewell (plural farewells)

A wish of happiness or safety at parting, especially a permanent departure.
- He bid farewell to all of his fans.
- The departure was not unduly prolonged.[…]Within the door Mrs. Spoker hastily imparted to Mrs. Love a few final sentiments on the subject of Divine Intention in the disposition of buckets; farewells and last commiserations; a deep, guttural instigation to the horse; and the wheels of the waggonette...1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC
Synonyms:

goodbye, adieu, vale, leave
A departure; the act of leaving.
- See how the morning opes her golden gates, And takes her farewell of the glorious sun.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
- Before I take my farewell of the subject.September 14, 1710, Joseph Addison, The Examiner No. 1
Synonyms:

leave

Adjective

farewell (not comparable)

Parting, valedictory, final.
- a farewell discourse; the band's farewell tour
- “I'm through with all pawn-games,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”.1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

Interjection

Goodbye
- He said "Farewell!" and left.
- So farewell hope, and with hope, farewell fear.1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
Synonyms:

adieu, vale

Verb

farewell (third-person singular simple present farewells, present participle farewelling, simple past and past participle farewelled)

To bid farewell or say goodbye.
- He farewelled viewers with a warm sign-off after each bulletin: "May your news be good news, and goodnight."2009 February 9, Neil Wilson and staff writers, “Tributes for newsman Brian Naylor and wife, killed in fires”, in Herald Sun, archived from the original on 11 Feb 2009

Proper noun capitalized: Farewell

Farewell

A hamlet in Farewell and Chorley parish, Lichfield district, Staffordshire, England (OS grid ref SK0811).
A surname.

farewell meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

farewell in Hindi

farewell: ख़ुदा हाफ़िज़ xudā hāfiz

farewell in Tamil

வழியனுப்புகை, பிரியாவிடை, பிரிந்து செல்லுகை

farewell in Urdu

a farewell: الوداع alvidā'
farewell, goodbye: الوداع alvidā'
farewell; depart; departure: رخصتی ruxsatī
farewell: خدا حافظ xudā hāfiz

farewell in Bengali

an act of departure: বিদায় bidaẏ

More languagesFewer languages

farewell in Malayalam: യാത്രാവന്ദനം, ശുഭയാത്ര, നന്നായിരിക്കട്ടെ, മംഗളം ഭവിക്കട്ടെ
farewell in Kannada: ಬೀಳ್ಕೊಡುಗೆ, ವಿದಾಯ, ಶುಭಮಸ್ತು
farewell in Punjabi: اللہ دے حَوالے, رَبّ رَکّھ rabb rakkh
farewell in Gujarati: અલવિદા alvidā
farewell in Tagalog: paalam
farewell in Arabic: وَدَاع wadāʕ, فِرَاق firāq, وَدَاعًا wadāʕan
farewell in Indonesian: selamat tinggal, pamit

Examples of farewell in a sentence

The last train—a three-coach A.E.C. unit—from Belfast to Crumlin and back, was bade farewell with fog signals as it carried a capacity crowd of last-trip travellers.1960 November, L. Hyland, “The Irish Scene”, in Trains Illustrated, page 691:
But with the first gray light of dawn he arose; and before drawing the white sheet veilingly over, he took a last farewell look at that angel face.1858, John Saunders, Westland Marston, The National Magazine, volume 3, page 133:

All 40 example sentences with farewell

Synonyms of farewell

Forms of farewell

Noun
plural	farewells
alternative form (obsolete)	farewel
Verb
third-person singular present	farewells
present participle	farewelling
past participle	farewelled
past	farewelled

Plural of farewell: farewells

Origin of farewell

From Middle English farewel, from fare wel! (and the variants with the personal pronoun "fare ye well" and "fare you well" used in the Renaissance), an imperative expression, possibly further derived from Old English *far wel!, equivalent to fare (“to fare, travel, journey”) + well. Compare Scots farewele, fairweill (“farewell”), Saterland Frisian Foarwäil (“farewell”), West Frisian farwol (“farewell”), German Fahrwol, Fahrwohl, East Frisian forwal, Dutch vaarwel (“farewell (sadly)”), Danish farvel (“farewell”), Norwegian farvel (“farewell”), Swedish farväl (“farewell”), Faroese farvæl (“goodbye”), Icelandic far vel (“farewell”). The extensive list of cognates suggests a postulated ultimate Proto-Germanic phrase of origin, possibly something akin to *far wela.

From fare + well.

Words formed from farewell

Phrases with farewell

Words that rhyme with farewell

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about farewell

What does farewell mean?: Farewell means a wish of happiness or safety at parting, especially a permanent departure.
What is farewell in Hindi?: Farewell in Hindi is ख़ुदा हाफ़िज़ (xudā hāfiz). See Farewell meaning in Hindi.
How do you use farewell in a sentence?: The last train—a three-coach A.E.C. unit—from Belfast to Crumlin and back, was bade farewell with fog signals as it carried a capacity crowd of last-trip travellers.
What part of speech is farewell?: Farewell can be a noun, an adjective, an interjection or a verb.
How do you pronounce farewell?: Farewell is pronounced /fɛəˈwɛl/ (UK).
What is the plural of farewell?: The plural of farewell is farewells.

Words near farewell in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-farewell.ogg.

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