How to Use by-product in a Sentence

by-product

noun
  • Wealth was once a mere by-product of tyranny.
    — Max Hastings, Twin Cities, 11 Jan. 2026
  • Avoid foods that list vague terms like 'meat meal' or 'by-products' as the main protein sources.
    — Jamie Spain, Good Housekeeping, 29 June 2023
  • But surely having long arms would just be a by-product of being tall, right?
    — Beau Dure, Forbes.com, 26 May 2026
  • All are by-products of the pet trade and animal trafficking around the world.
    — Ryan F. Mandelbaum, Scientific American, 13 June 2023
  • The term wife guy is a by-product of several converging trends.
    — Jeremy Gordon, The Atlantic, 9 June 2025
  • This lumber industry by-product is available in a range of sizes.
    — Paul Cappiello, Louisville Courier Journal, 6 Mar. 2026
  • Opening the strait is not an achievement, since its closing was a by-product of the war itself.
    — Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 25 May 2026
  • But that’s more a by-product of the success of the drug in helping people lose weight, not the drug itself.
    — Sara Reardon, Scientific American, 17 Nov. 2023
  • On a table, some small bites had been prepared for me, including a taco filled with a by-product of canola oil.
    — Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 23 Sep. 2024
  • Success then becomes a by-product, one that 12 didn’t see coming.
    — Clara Ludmir, Forbes.com, 17 July 2025
  • This is tough news for prospective buyers, but a welcome by-product of a healthy state economy.
    — Dan Perry, Newsweek, 4 Jan. 2025
  • This, in turn, leads to a sneaky productivity that is not the main point, but a happy by-product.
    — Mike Weinberger, Rolling Stone, 12 Apr. 2023
  • Small amounts are also retrieved as a by-product of mining other metals.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 30 Oct. 2023
  • Some of it is accidental, but more seems to be the by-product of specific choices.
    — Matt Zoller Seitz, Vulture, 16 Dec. 2025
  • So, some embarrassment may be an unavoidable by-product of doing what needs to be done.
    — R. Eric Thomas, The Denver Post, 27 Feb. 2025
  • Renewable naphtha is processed from crude tall oil, which is a by-product of the pulp industry.
    — Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 14 Aug. 2025
  • Those who understand that success is no longer a passive by-product but an active pursuit are the ones who will thrive.
    — Meridith Alexander, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2023
  • When choosing cat foods, make certain that meat or meat by-products are the first ingredients listed.
    — Matt Robison, Newsweek, 19 Feb. 2025
  • One study suggested that some air purifiers could even create formaldehyde as a by-product.
    — Topher Sanders, ProPublica, 9 Dec. 2024
  • This was perhaps a by-product of Guessand losing more duels than any player on the pitch in the first half.
    — Jacob Tanswell, New York Times, 12 Dec. 2025
  • The more diverse your diet, the more beneficial by-products your gut can create.
    — Patricia Weiser, Verywell Health, 30 June 2025
  • These pests then generate by-products that can trigger allergies.
    — Nashia Baker, Martha Stewart, 19 Feb. 2026
  • The optimism may be a by-product of consumers expecting interest rates to fall in the next year.
    — Fred Imbert, CNBC, 3 Dec. 2024
  • Here’s your product-by-product breakdown of what’s back, what’s close and what’s still MIA.
    — Hanna Wickes, Miami Herald, 30 Mar. 2026
  • The brain has one of the highest metabolisms of any organ in the body, and that process must yield by-products that need to be removed.
    — Veronique Greenwood, Quanta Magazine, 26 Mar. 2025
  • These sentiments were no sudden by-product of the explosion’s terror and fury.
    — Longreads, 20 July 2023
  • Using bamboo fibers, this set feels just like the real thing but without using any animal by-products.
    — Tatjana Freund, harpersbazaar.com, 12 Apr. 2023
  • Rice seedling blight is a disease caused by the toxic by-product of a wild, endosymbiotic affair.
    — Quanta Magazine, 2 Jan. 2025
  • Rice seedling blight is a disease caused by the toxic by-product of a wild, endosymbiotic affair.
    — Molly Herring, WIRED, 26 Jan. 2025
  • Not all the tendencies that make chatbots dangerous are glitches; some are by-products of how the systems are built.
    — Ronan Farrow, New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'by-product.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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