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goodbye

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Goodbye is used to say that you are leaving. (interjection)

An example of goodbye is what you'd say to the hosts of a party you're leaving.

See goodbye in Webster's New World College Dictionary

or good-bye

interjection, noun pl. goodbyes

farewell: the interj. is used at parting

also sp. goodby or good-by

See goodbye in American Heritage Dictionary 4

or good-bye also good-by (go͝od-bīˈ)

interjection

Used to express an acknowledgment of parting.

noun pl. good·byes or good-byes also good-bys

An acknowledgment at parting, especially by saying “goodbye.”
An act of parting or leave-taking: many sad goodbyes.

Word History: No doubt more than one reader has wondered exactly how goodbye is derived from the phrase “God be with you.” To understand this, it is helpful to see earlier forms of the expression, such as God be wy you, god b'w'y, godbwye, god buy' ye, and good-b'wy. The first word of the expression is now good and not God, for good replaced God by analogy with such expressions as good day, perhaps after people no longer had a clear idea of the original sense of the expression. A letter of 1573 written by Gabriel Harvey contains the first recorded use of goodbye: “To requite your gallonde [gallon] of godbwyes, I regive you a pottle of howdyes,” recalling another contraction that is still used.

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