maybe
/ˈmeɪ.bi/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northumbria/mɛˈbiː/
maybe adverb: perhaps, possibly.
Adverb
maybe (not comparable)
- Perhaps, possibly.
- A small extra effort now can maybe save you much work later.
- Maybe I was imagining it, but I could swear that the dog understood what I was saying.
- Synonyms:
- mayhaps, peradventure, perhaps, possibly, could be, might be, that’s possible
- Perhaps that is true (expressing no commitment to a decision or a neutral viewpoint to a statement).
- Okay. See you later, maybe. — Maybe I’ll see you later.2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
- Certainly.
- Maybe not the best idea.
Adjective
maybe (comparative more maybe, superlative most maybe)
Noun
maybe (plural maybes)
- Something that is possibly true.
- An answer that shows neither agreement nor disagreement.
- The results of the poll were inconclusive. We got two yeses, three nos, and four maybes.
- A future event that may or may not happen.
- About your raise: it's a big maybe.
maybe meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
maybe in Hindi
- indicating a lack of certainty
- शायद śāyad, कदाचित् kadācit, कदाचित kadācit
- as a pro-sentence
- कदाचित kadācit
maybe in Tamil
- ஒரு வேளை
maybe in Marathi
- indicating a lack of certainty
- कदाचित kadācit
maybe in Urdu
- indicating a lack of certainty
- شاید śāyad, غالباً ġāliban
More languagesFewer languages
- maybe in Bengali
- যত সত্বর সম্ভব
- maybe in Telugu
- బహుశా
- maybe in Malayalam
- ഒരുപക്ഷേ, പക്ഷേയെങ്കിൽ, ഒരു വേള, ഒരുസമയം
- maybe in Punjabi
- ਸ਼ਾਇਦ śāida
- maybe in Gujarati
- કદાચ kadāc
- maybe in Sanskrit
- स्यात् syāt
- maybe in Nepali
- सायद
- maybe in Pashto
- شايد šāyád
- maybe in Tagalog
- baka
- maybe in Arabic
- رُبَّمَا rubbamā, مِن اَلْمُمْكِن min al-mumkin, لَعَلَّ laʕalla
- maybe in Malay
- mungkin, barangkali
- maybe in Indonesian
- barangkali
- maybe in Persian
- شاید šâyad
- maybe in Thai
- คงจะ kong-jà, บางที baang-tii, อาจจะ àat-jà
- maybe in Vietnamese
- có lẽ
Examples of maybe in a sentence
- There's a lot in that wash: maybe you should split it into two piles.
- Maybe that's how it works in TV-land, but not in the real world.
- If you make enough of a fuss about the problem, maybe they'll fix it for you.
Synonyms of maybe
- mayhaps
- peradventure
- perhaps
- possibly
- could be
- might be
- that’s possible
Forms of maybe
| Adverb | |
|---|---|
| alternative form (dialectal) | mebbe |
| alternative form (obsolete) | may-be |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more maybe |
| superlative | most maybe |
| Noun | |
| plural | maybes |
Origin of maybe
From an ellipsis of Middle English it may be, equivalent to may + be. Compare mayhap.
Words formed from maybe
Phrases with maybe
Words that rhyme with maybe
Questions about maybe
- What does maybe mean?
- Maybe means perhaps, possibly.
- What is maybe in Hindi?
- Maybe in Hindi is शायद (śāyad), कदाचित् (kadācit), कदाचित (kadācit). See Maybe meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is maybe?
- Maybe can be an adverb, an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce maybe?
- Maybe is pronounced /ˈmeɪ.bi/.
Words near maybe in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: maybe (page history and authors); maybe (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); maybe (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); maybe (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); maybe (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); કદાચ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); maybe (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-maybe.ogg, en-us-maybe.ogg.
Cite this entry: “maybe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/maybe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.