What is another word for backwards?

Synonyms for backwards
back·wards

This thesaurus page includes all potential synonyms, words with the same meaning and similar terms for the word backwards.

Wiktionary1.0 / 1 vote

  1. backwardsadjective

    Oriented toward the back.

    The battleship had three backwards guns at the stern, in addition to the primary complement.

    Synonyms:
    rearward, hindwards, retrograde

  2. backwardsadverb

    In the opposite direction of usual.

    The clock did not work because the battery was inserted backwards.

    Synonyms:
    switched, back to front, reversedly, contrariwise, mirror image

  3. backwardsadjective

    In a manner such that the back precedes the front.

    The tour guide walked backwards while droning on to the bored seniors.

    Synonyms:
    in reverse, obsolete, crude, dated, primitive, back to front

  4. backwardsadjective

    Clumsy, inept, or inefficient.

    He was a very backwards scholar, but he was a marvel on the football field.

    Synonyms:
    fumbling, awkward, incompetent, poor

Princeton's WordNet2.7 / 3 votes

  1. back, backward, backwards, rearward, rearwardsadverb

    at or to or toward the back or rear

    "he moved back"; "tripped when he stepped backward"; "she looked rearward out the window of the car"

    Synonyms:
    rearwards, back, backward, rearward

  2. backward, backwardsadverb

    in a manner or order or direction the reverse of normal

    "it's easy to get the `i' and the `e' backward in words like `seize' and `siege'"; "the child put her jersey on backward"

    Synonyms:
    rearwards, back, backward, rearward

Editors Contribution0.0 / 0 votes

  1. magnetic reversal

    going the opposite way

    we should do the steps backwards to solve the problem.

    Submitted by rinat on September 4, 2019  
  2. reverse order

    they have the same meaning

    reverse the order you are headed go backwards

    Submitted by anonymous on December 26, 2019  

Dictionary of English Synonymes0.0 / 0 votes

  1. backwardsadjective

    Synonyms:
    regressively, rearwards, aback, behind, ABAFT

PPDB, the paraphrase database0.0 / 0 votes

  1. List of paraphrases for "backwards":

    back, backward, retrograde, rearward, upside-down, behind, ago, back-to-front

How to pronounce backwards?

How to say backwards in sign language?

Words popularity by usage frequency

rankingword
#103back
#808ago
#1531behind
#1711poor
#5171dated
#9742switched
#9920crude
#10591primitive
#12026backward
#12297obsolete
#12694backwards
#17452awkward
#24911incompetent
#38684retrograde
#57710fumbling
#90539rearward
#179283contrariwise

How to use backwards in a sentence?

  1. Ann Landers:

    Nobody gets to live life backwards. Look ahead -- that's where your future lies.

  2. Johann von Goethe:

    Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards.

  3. Dylan Thomas:

    From my point of view the worst thing would be for it to end up in the hands of a private collector who locks it up in a bank vault for 50 years, it was hard to keep my hands off it -- I just want to pore through it, to be able to read every word in his crabbed, backwards-sloping hand -- it is such a covetable object.

  4. Aldous Huxley:

    Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.

  5. Hillary Clinton:

    I don’t want to see us go backwards, but organized interests fueled by ideology and huge amounts of money are trying to take us backwards. So I feel as strongly today as I ever have that we all have to stand up and defend our country, and most importantly, our democracy.


Translations for backwards

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

  • pozpátkuCzech
  • rückwärtsGerman
  • προς τα πίσω, επαναφορά επιστροφήGreek
  • malantaŭenEsperanto
  • invertido, a contrapelo, hacia atrásSpanish
  • tagasisuunas, saamatu, vanamoodne, peegelpilt, tahapoole, tagurpidiEstonian
  • väärinpäin, kelvoton, taaksepäin, takaperin, vanhanaikainenFinnish
  • visszafeléHungarian
  • ke belakangIndonesian
  • indietroItalian
  • 뒤로Korean
  • به‌ره‌ودوا, پاشه‌وپاش, دواکه‌وتوKurdish
  • whakatuaraMāori
  • achterwaartsDutch
  • смотрящий, назад, направленныйRussian
  • bakåtriktad, efter, omvänd, baklänges, efterbliven, bakvändSwedish
  • назадUkrainian

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"backwards." Synonyms.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Web. 8 Dec. 2023. <https://www.synonyms.com/synonym/backwards>.

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