Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use by in a sentence

40 example sentences · preposition, adverb, adjective

By means near or next to. Example: “The mailbox is by the bus stop.”

Examples of by by meaning

prepositionNear or next to.

  • The mailbox is by the bus stop.

prepositionFrom one side of something to the other, passing close by; past.

  • The stream runs by our back door.
  • He ran straight by me.

prepositionNot later than (the given time); not later than the end of (the given time interval); before.

  • Be back by ten o'clock!
  • We'll find someone by the end of March.
  • I'll have been cycling for longer than two hours by lunchtime.

prepositionAfter a given amount of time has elapsed or a given event has occurred.

  • By February, we were all sick of the cold.
  • By the time I realized I had left my phone at home, I was already two blocks from work.
  • By 29, my financial situation wasn’t just disorganized, it was untenable.2026 April 22, Jillian Sanders, “The Danger of Surrendering Your Financial Independence in a Relationship”, in TIME, archived from the...

prepositionFollowing a passive verb.

  • The matter was decided by the chairman.
  • The boat was swamped by the water.
  • He was protected by his body armour.

prepositionFollowing a noun.

  • There was a call by the unions for a 30% pay rise.

prepositionFollowing an adjective.

  • I was aghast by what I saw.
  • Nina is pregnant by a wishy-washy ACLU lawyer named Howard.1986 February 15, Walta Borawski, “Objects of Affection: Gay Men & Straight Women”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 39, page B6

prepositionIndicates the creator of a work: Existing through the authorship etc. of.

  • There are many well-known plays by William Shakespeare

More sentences with by

  • I like to stay informed about current events by reading the newspaper daily.From the entry current events
  • We had no money so we had to live by barter.From the entry barter
  • Bovine spongiform encephalopathy is more commonly known by its abbreviated form BSE.From the entry abbreviate
  • Only by submitting to the aberration could the human traders travel safely through the territory of Zularn.From the entry aberration
  • The new teacher was strict and the students did not want to abide by his rules.From the entry abide
  • In many places, Acadian has been supplanted by English and by Standard French.From the entry Acadian
  • I can't accept nothing being done about the problem and your standing idly by.From the entry accept
  • Little by little I pushed the snake into the basket, until finally all of it was in.From the entry in
  • Her birth father left when she was a baby; she was raised by her mother and stepfather.From the entry birth
  • The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations will be the acid test of their good will.From the entry accord
  • A cheque for zero dollars and zero cents crashed the computers on division by zero.From the entry zero
  • The zeroes of a polynomial are its roots by the fundamental theorem of algebra.From the entry zero
  • Rome was sacked by Germans and the Western Roman Empire collapsed.From the entry german
  • Quality of life is usually determined by health, education, and income.From the entry quality
  • Due to inflation, the monthly gym fee is rising by 10% from January.From the entry inflation
  • Most of the site was occupied by huts, but there was an open area in the centre.From the entry open
  • Stop by the market on your way home and pick up some milk.From the entry market
  • But—and this is a big but—you have to come home by sundown.From the entry but
  • Eyes Wide Shut was the last film to be directed by Stanley Kubrick.From the entry last
  • Yesterday was rainy, but by this morning it had begun to snow.From the entry yesterday
  • He was included in a feature that was written by the EspnCricinfo department on the media.From the entry feature
  • Ask him that he tell her —No need to, she'll already know by know.From the entry ask
  • You can create the color orange by mixing yellow and red.From the entry create
  • That gun’s not mine! It was planted there by the real murderer!From the entry plant

Meaning of by

  1. preposition Near or next to.
  2. preposition From one side of something to the other, passing close by; past.
  3. preposition Not later than (the given time); not later than the end of (the given time interval); before.

Full definition of by

Questions about by in a sentence

How do you use by in a sentence?
By is used as a preposition, adverb and adjective. For example: “The mailbox is by the bus stop.”
What is a short sentence with by?
“Be back by ten o'clock!”
What does by mean?
By means near or next to.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: by (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use by in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/by. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.