overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

maybe.

Perhaps, possibly.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adv/ˈmeɪ.bi/[ˈmeɪ̯.bi]/mɛˈbiː/Northumbria/ˈmæɪ.bi/Australia
  1. Perhaps, possibly.

    not-comparable
    A small extra effort now can maybe save you much work later.
    Maybe I was imagining it, but I could swear that the dog understood what I was saying.
  2. Perhaps that is true (expressing no commitment to a decision or a neutral viewpoint to a statement).

    not-comparable
  3. Certainly.

    UK · not-comparable
    Maybe not the best idea.
Where this word comes from

From an ellipsis of Middle English it may be, equivalent to may + be. Compare mayhap.

adj/ˈmeɪ.bi/[ˈmeɪ̯.bi]/mɛˈbiː/Northumbria/ˈmæɪ.bi/Australia
  1. Possible; uncertain.

Where this word comes from

From an ellipsis of Middle English it may be, equivalent to may + be. Compare mayhap.

noun/ˈmeɪ.bi/[ˈmeɪ̯.bi]/mɛˈbiː/Northumbria/ˈmæɪ.bi/Australia
  1. Something that is possibly true.

    informal
  2. An answer that shows neither agreement nor disagreement.

    informal
    The results of the poll were inconclusive. We got two yeses, three nos, and four maybes.
  3. A future event that may or may not happen.

    informal
    About your raise: it's a big maybe.
Where this word comes from

From an ellipsis of Middle English it may be, equivalent to may + be. Compare mayhap.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.