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say it: STAND-bahy
standby is a noun and adjective meaning "something that can be relied on when needed". It is pronounced /ˈstændˈbaɪ/ — STAND-bahy. It carries 3 recorded senses.
something that can be relied on when needed
an actor able to replace a regular performer when required
ready for emergency use
“a standby generator”
“a standby crew”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for standby come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.