Backward Meaning
/ˈbæk.wə(ɹ)d/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjIndicating position or direction.
adjIndicating position or direction., Situated toward or at the rear of something.
Sentence Examples
The dog walked backward.
Social conditions are going backward rather than forward.
He took a step backward to get a better view of the painting.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The toddler took a step ____ and nearly fell off the low stool.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She took a step ____ to get a better view of the large painting.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English bakwarde, abakward, equivalent to back (adverb) + -ward. Cognate with Old Frisian bekward (“backward”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The effect is to retard their progress—giving them too little opportunity and too little incentive for copying the language of adults— and a little later the child is pained and the parents' ears tingle at hearing a chance remark: “ How terribly backward she is about talking.""
— 1882, Charles Edward Page, How to feed the baby to make it healthy and happy, page 133:
"The fact that a child is backward in talking is no sign of defective intelligence, nor does it prove that it will be a slow pupil."
— 1910, Leonard Keene Hirshberg, What You Ought to Know about Your Baby, page 19:
"Rickety children are backward in teething, and when the teeth do appear, they decay very rapidly. The children are backward in walking and backward in talking and the soft-spot (fontanel) on the top of the head remains open months longer than it should."
— 1925, Louis Fischer, The Health-care of the Baby: A Handbook for Mothers and Nurses, page 170:
"Most cruelly, the immediate security interests of the United States and the states surrounding Somalia are now to keep it a failed state, to prevent Islamists from consolidating even a weak state centered on Mogadishu. The leader of the victorious faction, one Aden Hashi 'Ayro, is said to be a veteran of Afghanistan; he knows well what a small sanctuary in a backward corner of the globe can mean for al Qaeda."
— 2006, Tom Donnelly, “Back to Mogadishu?”, in Armed Forces Journal, archived from the original on 08 Jan 2009:
""[…] I've a job of work to finish tonight; mourning, as must be in time for the funeral to-morrow; and grandfather has been out moss- hunting, and will not be home till late."
"Oh, how charming it will be! I'll help you if you're backward. Have you much to do?""
— 1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The toddler took a step ____ and nearly fell off the low stool.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She took a step ____ to get a better view of the large painting.