Byword
noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A proverb or proverbial expression, common saying; a frequently used word or phrase.
- 2 a condensed but memorable saying embodying some important fact of experience that is taken as true by many people wordnet
- 3 A characteristic word or expression; a word or phrase associated with a person or group.
- 4 Someone or something that stands as an example (i.e. metonymically) for something else, by having some of that something's characteristic traits.
"Illustrious unfortunates attract a wider sympathy, not because their griefs are more intense, but because, being set on lofty pedestals, they the better serve mankind as instances and bywords of calamity."
- 5 An object of notoriety or contempt, scorn or derision.
"He hath made me also a byword of the people […]"
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- 6 A nickname or epithet.
Example
More examples"The name Cleopatra has become a byword for a beautiful woman."
Etymology
From Middle English byword, byworde (“proverb”), from Old English bīword, bīwyrd, bīwyrde (“proverb, household word", also "adverb”), from Proto-West Germanic *bīwurdī, equivalent to by- + word. Compare Latin proverbium, which byword may possibly be a translation of. Cognate with Old High German pīwurti (“proverb”). Compare also Old English bīspel (“proverb, example”), bīcwide (“byword, proverb, tale, fable”), Dutch bijwoord (“adverb”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.