Word.ws English Dictionary

passer-by

/ˈpɑː.sə.baɪ/US/ˈpæs.ɚˌbaɪ/

passer-by noun: a person who is passing by (that is, walking past).

Noun

passer-by (plural passers-by)

  1. A person who is passing by (that is, walking past).
    • When he tripped and fell in the street, several kind passers-by helped him up.
    • With a little manœuvring they contrived to meet on the doorstep which was […] in a boiling stream of passers-by, hurrying business people speeding past in a flurry of fumes and dust in the bright haze.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 10, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    passer

passer-by meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Kannada

passer-by in Hindi

a person who is passing by
राहगीर rāhgīr

passer-by in Tamil

வழிச் செல்வோர், வழிச்செல்வோர், வழிப்போக்கன்

passer-by in Urdu

a person who is passing by
راہْ گِیر rāh gīr, راہْگِیر rāhgīr

passer-by in Kannada

ದಾರಿಹೋಕ, ಹಾದಿಹೋಕ
More languagesFewer languages
passer-by in Arabic
مَارّ mārr, مَارَّة mārra
passer-by in Vietnamese
khách qua đường

Synonyms of passer-by

Forms of passer-by

pluralpassers-by
alternative formpasserby

Origin of passer-by

From passer + by. Compare bystander.

Questions about passer-by

What does passer-by mean?
Passer-by means a person who is passing by (that is, walking past).
What is passer-by in Hindi?
Passer-by in Hindi is राहगीर (rāhgīr). See Passer-by meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is passer-by?
Passer-by is a noun.
How do you pronounce passer-by?
Passer-by is pronounced /ˈpɑː.sə.baɪ/ (UK).
What is the plural of passer-by?
The plural of passer-by is passers-by.

Words near passer-by in the dictionary

  1. passengerless
  2. passengers
  3. passepied
  4. passepieds
  5. passer
  6. passer-by
  7. passer-bys
  8. passer-through
  9. passerby
  10. passerbys
  11. passerelle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: passer-by (page history and authors); passer-by (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); passer-by (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Usmaan (Middle river exports)-passer-by.wav.

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