Flyby

//ˈflaɪˌbaɪ// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A flight past a celestial object in order to make observations.

    "The upcoming flyby of Halley's comet is expected to provide new information on the nature of the comet."

  2. 2
    A low-level ceremonial flight, typically in connection with an airshow or a military parade. US

    "Two of your snot-nose jockeys did a fly-by on my tower at over 400 knots!"

  3. 3
    A brief visit. figuratively
  4. 4
    A sailby performed by a hydrofoil vessel while hydrofoiling.
  5. 5
    A three-dimensional animated sequence in which the camera moves past an object or scenery.

Synonyms

All synonyms
flyoverflypastflypast

Example

More examples

"This first flyby will place Parker Solar Probe in position in early November to fly as close as 15 million miles from the Sun – within the blazing solar atmosphere, known as the corona – closer than anything made by humanity has ever gone before."

Etymology

Deverbal from fly by.

Related phrases

flyby anomalypost-flybyfly through

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.