bypass
/ˈbaɪpæs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.76 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A road that passes around something, such as a residential area or business district.
noun
A replacement road for obsolete road that is no longer in use because devastating natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides).
noun
The act of going past or around.
noun
An electrical shunt.
noun
An alternative passage created to divert a bodily fluid around a damaged organ; the surgical procedure to construct such a bypass.
verb
To avoid an obstacle etc, by constructing or using a bypass.
verb
To ignore the usual channels or procedures.
Example Sentences
- "Five of the 16 patients required simultaneous FF bypass and iliaco-femoral bypass; 2, required simultaneous FF bypass and iliac thrombo-endoarterectomy (Table II)."
- "More to theyr proper Elements inaugurated none, / Than ſhee to hers by-paſſed, he to his poſſeſſed Throne."
- "Another force, also from the east, has by-passed Peiping and is striking southward. It apparently intends to swing eastward to form a junction, which probably will be effected near Langfang, on the railroad 30 miles southeast of Peiping."
- "I never got seated. 1 stood in the entrance half an hour, bypassed again and again by a maitre d’hotel who had clearly been through all this many times before. Walking to a seat, I realized, would gain me nothing. No waiter would take my order."
- "Datacasting bypasses the wired, terrestrial Internet and is a cheaper way to distribute software than pressing and mailing CDs."
- "Thanks to Brexit, many ferry companies now run direct from Ireland to the EU mainland, bypassing UK ports such as Fishguard, with an impact on traffic."
Etymology
From Middle English *bypassen, *bipassen (suggested by past participle by-past, bipast), equivalent to by- + pass.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *bypassen
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈbaɪpæs/
- British English: /ˈbaɪpɑːs/