bypass
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Going past or around.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
bypasSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbaɪpæs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
medicine
An alternative passage created to divert a bodily fluid around a damaged organ; the surgical procedure to construct such a bypass.
The act of going past or around.
A section of pipe that conducts a fluid around some other fixture.
A road that passes around something, such as a residential area or business district.
A surgically created shunt (usually around a damaged part)
A replacement road for obsolete road that is no longer in use because devastating natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides).
verb
To ignore the usual channels or procedures.
To avoid an obstacle etc, by constructing or using a bypass.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An alternative passage created to divert a bodily fluid around a damaged organ; the surgical procedure to construct such a bypass.
Used this way, bypass is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use bypass
- “You cannot bypass these rules!”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A capacitor that provides low impedance over certain (high) frequencies.
A capacitor that provides low impedance over certain (high) frequencies.
Open-heart surgery in which the rib cage is opened and a section of a blood vessel is grafted from the aorta to the coronary artery to bypass the blocked section of the coronary artery and…
Open-heart surgery in which the rib cage is opened and a section of a blood vessel is grafted from the aorta to the coronary artery to bypass the blocked section of the coronary artery and…
Open-heart surgery in which the rib cage is opened and a section of a blood vessel is grafted from the aorta to the coronary artery to bypass the blocked section of the coronary artery and…
Surgical operation that shortens the small intestine.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- graftnoun
- congestionnoun
- roundaboutnoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to ignore the usual channels or procedures
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.