maybe
adjEtymology From an ellipsis of Middle English it may be, equivalent to may + be. Compare mayhap.
1
Possible; uncertain.
- Then add those may-be years thou hast to live1687, John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther, part III line 294:
maybe
adv/ˈmeɪ.bi/ · [ˈmeɪ̯.bi]
Etymology From an ellipsis of Middle English it may be, equivalent to may + be. Compare mayhap.
1
Perhaps, possibly.
- 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
As a pro-sentence Perhaps that is true (expressing no commitment to a decision or a neutral viewpoint to a statement).
- Okay. See you later, maybe. — Maybe I’ll see you later.2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
3
UK Certainly.
- Maybe not the best idea.
- Synonyms
- mayhaps, peradventure, perhaps, possibly, could be, might be, that’s possible
- Derived terms
- and I don't mean maybe, maybe baby bias, maybe baby effect, maybeish, maybeness, maybeso, maybe type