Useful preposition collocations with the preposition BY.
- By a whisker
Meaning: By a very small distance
E.g. I’m lucky to be alive. The bus missed me by a whisker.
- By accident
Meaning: Accidentally; unintentionally
E.g. Sorry, I knocked over the vase by accident.
- By accident
Meaning: As the result of some undesigned, unintended, unrelated, natural, or random occurrence
E.g. The car got totaled by accident; a giant snowdrift fell off the church roof.
- By accident
Meaning: By chance; unexpectedly; as the result of an unrelated series of events
E.g. She overheard the information by accident.
- By and large
Meaning: Mostly, generally; with few exceptions
E.g. It was, by and large, an unexceptional presentation.
- By any chance
Meaning: Possibly; perhaps
E.g. Are you by any chance looking for a new staff member?
- By default
Meaning: In absence of any opposing action
E.g. If we don’t do something, they’ll win by default.
- By definition
Meaning: According to, or as a matter of, definition
E.g. This property holds for all polygons; and since, by definition, all triangles are polygons, it holds for all triangles.
- By definition
Meaning: Necessarily; always; certainly
E.g. Almost by definition, a conversation requires both parties to accept each other’s viewpoints to some extent.
- By far
Meaning: To a considerably large extent, easily
E.g. Paris is by far the largest city in France.
- By hand
Meaning: Manually; without the use of automation or machines
E.g. The computers went down and they had to do all the bookkeeping by hand that day.
- By heart
Meaning: Knowing completely; as having committed completely to memory
E.g. He used to live in that town, and he still knows all the streets by heart.
- By mistake
Meaning: By accident; without intention to do so
E.g. Today I took your packed lunch to work by mistake.
- By no means
Meaning: Certainly not; definitely not
E.g. By no means am I suggesting that euthanasia should be outlawed, but rather that we should look at its inherent risks.
- By now
Meaning: At some time in the near past
E.g. My parents should have arrived by now. I wonder what’s keeping them.
- By oneself
Meaning: Alone; without assistance or help from others
E.g. You ate the whole thing by yourself?
- By oneself
Meaning: Alone, without another’s company
E.g. He sat by himself in the corner, waiting quietly.
- By rail
Meaning: Via a train
E.g. Cotton was increasingly shipped by rail.
- By sail
Meaning: Via a sailboat or sailing ship
E.g. It took many weeks to cross the Atlantic by sail.
- By steam
Meaning: Via a steam-powered boat or ship
E.g. The Nineteenth Century innovated navigation by steam.
- By steam
Meaning: Via a steam train
E.g. This line once took passengers by steam to the frontier.
- By the way
Meaning: Incidentally
E.g. His mother will be coming for dinner tomorrow, and, by the way, she volunteered to bring dessert.
- By trade
Meaning: As a profession; professionally
E.g. Although he was a gifted musician, he was a plumber by trade and never played music professionally.
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