Thereby

How to spell thereby

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce thereby

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does thereby mean?

1. adverbBy that means; as a result of the action or fact just stated.

Thereby in a sentence

• She paid off the balance early and thereby avoided further interest.

• The company moved its servers offshore, thereby reducing its tax bill.

Where does thereby come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English compound, joining the Old English adverb 'there' (thaer, meaning 'in that place' or 'in that matter') with the preposition 'by' (Old English be, 'near' or 'by means of'). The pairing belongs to a large family of formal adverbs built the same way, such as 'thereof', 'therein', 'thereupon', and 'thereafter', most of which date back well before the Norman period. Across these compounds 'there' stops pointing at a literal place and instead refers back to something just mentioned, so 'thereby' came to mean 'by that means' or 'as a result of that'. The construction survived strongly in legal and official writing, which is why the word still carries a slightly bookish, contractual tone today. The spelling is reassuringly transparent once you see it as two familiar words pushed together: 'there' plus 'by', with no extra letters to trip over.

How the word is built

• there (in that matter/place)
• by (near/by means of), an old adverbial compound