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hereby

UK/hɪəˈbʌɪ/US/hɪɹˈbaɪ/
adverbB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #3,234 of 15,258leans spoken

Hereby means by this act, in formal declarations. I hereby declare, hereby resign, hereby give notice.

It marks the sentence as doing the thing rather than describing it — saying I hereby resign is the resignation, not a report of one. Philosophers call these performative utterances. It belongs to legal and ceremonial language only. Note here plus by.

Definitions of hereby

  1. 1adverbherebyBy this act, in formal declarations.B2

    “I hereby declare the new bridge open.”

hereby is a formal marker.

Where it comes from

Here plus by, one of a family of legal compounds with hereto, herewith and hereinafter.

From here + by.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

hereby in the wild

  • Commander Vispavarma and Sisirena, the wife of the Commander, are (hereby) honored.

    Vispavarma

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.