Word.ws English Dictionary

goes by

goes by is the third-person singular simple present indicative of go by.

Meaning of go by

Verb

go by (third-person singular simple present goes by, present participle going by, simple past went by, past participle gone by)

  1. (intransitive) To pass or go past without much interaction.
    • I like to sit and watch the world go by. The rest of the day went by quickly.
    Synonyms:
    pass by, fly by, forpass, forthglide, overgo, pass, roll on, slip by, transpass
  2. (transitive) To be called, to use as a name.
    • His full name is Ernest Tinkleton, but he goes by Ernie.
  3. (transitive) To suggest or request that other people use a specific set of gender pronouns when referring to the subject.
    • I go by they/them pronouns.
    Synonyms:
    use
  4. (transitive) To follow; to assume as true for the purposes of making a decision, taking an action, etc.
    • I'm only going by what my teacher said.
    Synonyms:
    go off

Questions about goes by

What is goes by the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Goes by is the third-person singular simple present indicative of go by.

Words near goes by in the dictionary

  1. goes bonkers
  2. goes both ways
  3. goes brrr
  4. goes bush
  5. goes bust
  6. goes by
  7. goes by the board
  8. goes by the name of
  9. goes by the wayside
  10. goes bye-bye
  11. goes cahoots

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: goes by (page history and authors); go by (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: “goes by.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/goes_by. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.