See backword in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "back",
"3": "word"
},
"expansion": "back + word",
"name": "compound"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From back + word.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "backwords",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "backword (plural backwords)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0",
"word": "foreword"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"glosses": [
"A contention, retort, or reply."
],
"id": "en-backword-en-noun-k47UzMCn",
"links": [
[
"contention",
"contention"
],
[
"retort",
"retort"
],
[
"reply",
"reply"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
186,
194
]
],
"ref": "2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 840:",
"text": "Richard has compounded with some Italians to paint a mural of his triumph [...] The time may come when the scene is bitter in his eyes, but he should paint it anyway. He should not give backword to the Italians — it is how they get their living.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A contradiction or answer to put off an engagement; a countermand."
],
"id": "en-backword-en-noun-9avCtuDx",
"links": [
[
"contradiction",
"contradiction"
],
[
"answer",
"answer"
],
[
"countermand",
"countermand"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "23 14 63",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "8 12 79",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "8 11 81",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A section of commentary at the end of a book."
],
"id": "en-backword-en-noun-rg7YnGEV",
"links": [
[
"commentary",
"commentary"
],
[
"book",
"book"
]
]
}
],
"word": "backword"
}
{
"categories": [
"English compound terms",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English nouns",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "back",
"3": "word"
},
"expansion": "back + word",
"name": "compound"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From back + word.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "backwords",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "backword (plural backwords)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "foreword"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"glosses": [
"A contention, retort, or reply."
],
"links": [
[
"contention",
"contention"
],
[
"retort",
"retort"
],
[
"reply",
"reply"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
186,
194
]
],
"ref": "2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 840:",
"text": "Richard has compounded with some Italians to paint a mural of his triumph [...] The time may come when the scene is bitter in his eyes, but he should paint it anyway. He should not give backword to the Italians — it is how they get their living.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A contradiction or answer to put off an engagement; a countermand."
],
"links": [
[
"contradiction",
"contradiction"
],
[
"answer",
"answer"
],
[
"countermand",
"countermand"
]
]
},
{
"glosses": [
"A section of commentary at the end of a book."
],
"links": [
[
"commentary",
"commentary"
],
[
"book",
"book"
]
]
}
],
"word": "backword"
}
Download raw JSONL data for backword meaning in English (1.5kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-02-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (f492ef9 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.