Synonyms for backwards
back·wards

WiktionaryRate these synonyms:1.0 / 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 WordNetRate these synonyms:2.7 / 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 ContributionRate these synonyms:0.0 / 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 SynonymesRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. backwardsadjective

   Synonyms:
   regressively, rearwards, aback, behind, ABAFT

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:0.0 / 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

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.