by the way

1. 1.

   introducing a different topic

   “incidentally, I won't go to the party”

   Synonymsby the byeincidentallyapropos

Questions about by the way

What does by the way mean?

by the way means "introducing a different topic".

What is another word for by the way?

Close synonyms include by the bye, incidentally, apropos. 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 the way a common word?

by the way 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.