by far

1. 1.

   by a considerable margin

   “she was by far the smartest student”

   “it was far and away the best meal he had ever eaten”

   Synonymsfar and awayout and away

Questions about by far

What does by far mean?

by far means "by a considerable margin".

What is another word for by far?

Close synonyms include far and away, out and away. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is by far a common word?

by far is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.