"linebacker" meaning in English

See linebacker in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: linebackers [plural]
Etymology: From line + backer. Etymology templates: {{af|en|line|backer}} line + backer Head templates: {{en-noun}} linebacker (plural linebackers)
  1. (American football) The defensive players who are in position behind the defensive linemen and in front of the safeties and cornerbacks and whose principal responsibilities are to tackle runners and to defend against shorter passes. Categories (topical): Football (American) Translations (The defensive players who are in position behind the defensive linemen and in front of the safeties and cornerbacks): rerelínia [feminine, masculine] (Catalan), tukimies (Finnish), Linebacker [masculine] (German), linebacker [masculine] (Spanish)

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "line",
        "3": "backer"
      },
      "expansion": "line + backer",
      "name": "af"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From line + backer.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "linebackers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "linebacker (plural linebackers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
        },
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          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
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        },
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          "name": "Pages with 2 entries",
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Catalan translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with German translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Spanish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Football (American)",
          "orig": "en:Football (American)",
          "parents": [
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            "Ball games",
            "Sports",
            "Human activity",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              4,
              14
            ]
          ],
          "text": "The linebacker corralled the runner who had slipped through the hole.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              81,
              92
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2007 January 1, Karen Crouse, “With Wild-Card Spot Clinched, Jets Can Finally Talk Playoffs”, in The New York Times:",
          "text": "While Brown distracted the usually hyperfocused Mangini, safety Kerry Rhodes and linebackers Eric Barton and Jonathan Vilma grabbed a cooler of Gatorade and surreptitiously assumed their positions according to plan.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              74,
              84
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2024 December 2, David Close, “Houston Texans head coach defends Azeez Al-Shaair as the NFL leans toward suspending the linebacker, source says”, in CNN:",
          "text": "Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans defended Azeez Al-Shaair after the linebacker was ejected from Sunday’s game for throwing a late hit on Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The defensive players who are in position behind the defensive linemen and in front of the safeties and cornerbacks and whose principal responsibilities are to tackle runners and to defend against shorter passes."
      ],
      "id": "en-linebacker-en-noun-YAFVqao4",
      "links": [
        [
          "American football",
          "American football"
        ],
        [
          "players",
          "players"
        ],
        [
          "position",
          "position"
        ],
        [
          "cornerback",
          "cornerback"
        ],
        [
          "tackle",
          "tackle"
        ],
        [
          "defend",
          "defend"
        ],
        [
          "against",
          "against"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(American football) The defensive players who are in position behind the defensive linemen and in front of the safeties and cornerbacks and whose principal responsibilities are to tackle runners and to defend against shorter passes."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "American-football",
        "ball-games",
        "football",
        "games",
        "hobbies",
        "lifestyle",
        "sports"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "ca",
          "lang": "Catalan",
          "sense": "The defensive players who are in position behind the defensive linemen and in front of the safeties and cornerbacks",
          "tags": [
            "feminine",
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "rerelínia"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "The defensive players who are in position behind the defensive linemen and in front of the safeties and cornerbacks",
          "word": "tukimies"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "The defensive players who are in position behind the defensive linemen and in front of the safeties and cornerbacks",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Linebacker"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "The defensive players who are in position behind the defensive linemen and in front of the safeties and cornerbacks",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "linebacker"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "linebacker"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "line",
        "3": "backer"
      },
      "expansion": "line + backer",
      "name": "af"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From line + backer.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "linebackers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "linebacker (plural linebackers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
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        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 2 entries",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Catalan translations",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with German translations",
        "Terms with Spanish translations",
        "en:Football (American)"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              4,
              14
            ]
          ],
          "text": "The linebacker corralled the runner who had slipped through the hole.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              81,
              92
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2007 January 1, Karen Crouse, “With Wild-Card Spot Clinched, Jets Can Finally Talk Playoffs”, in The New York Times:",
          "text": "While Brown distracted the usually hyperfocused Mangini, safety Kerry Rhodes and linebackers Eric Barton and Jonathan Vilma grabbed a cooler of Gatorade and surreptitiously assumed their positions according to plan.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              74,
              84
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2024 December 2, David Close, “Houston Texans head coach defends Azeez Al-Shaair as the NFL leans toward suspending the linebacker, source says”, in CNN:",
          "text": "Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans defended Azeez Al-Shaair after the linebacker was ejected from Sunday’s game for throwing a late hit on Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The defensive players who are in position behind the defensive linemen and in front of the safeties and cornerbacks and whose principal responsibilities are to tackle runners and to defend against shorter passes."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "American football",
          "American football"
        ],
        [
          "players",
          "players"
        ],
        [
          "position",
          "position"
        ],
        [
          "cornerback",
          "cornerback"
        ],
        [
          "tackle",
          "tackle"
        ],
        [
          "defend",
          "defend"
        ],
        [
          "against",
          "against"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(American football) The defensive players who are in position behind the defensive linemen and in front of the safeties and cornerbacks and whose principal responsibilities are to tackle runners and to defend against shorter passes."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "American-football",
        "ball-games",
        "football",
        "games",
        "hobbies",
        "lifestyle",
        "sports"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ca",
      "lang": "Catalan",
      "sense": "The defensive players who are in position behind the defensive linemen and in front of the safeties and cornerbacks",
      "tags": [
        "feminine",
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "rerelínia"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "The defensive players who are in position behind the defensive linemen and in front of the safeties and cornerbacks",
      "word": "tukimies"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "The defensive players who are in position behind the defensive linemen and in front of the safeties and cornerbacks",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Linebacker"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "The defensive players who are in position behind the defensive linemen and in front of the safeties and cornerbacks",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "linebacker"
    }
  ],
  "word": "linebacker"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-04-03 using wiktextract (87ad358 and ea19a0a). 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.