"think back" meaning in English

See think back in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-think back.ogg Forms: thinks back [present, singular, third-person], thinking back [participle, present], thought back [participle, past], thought back [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|think<,,thought> back}} think back (third-person singular simple present thinks back, present participle thinking back, simple past and past participle thought back)
  1. (idiomatic) To think about a time or experience; to recall. Tags: idiomatic Translations (think about a time or experience): 回想 (huíxiǎng) (Chinese Mandarin), 回憶 /回忆 (huíyì) (Chinese Mandarin), muistella (Finnish), вспоминать (vspominatʹ) (Russian)

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "thinks back",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "thinking back",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "thought back",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "thought back",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "think<,,thought> back"
      },
      "expansion": "think back (third-person singular simple present thinks back, present participle thinking back, simple past and past participle thought back)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"back\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with redundant transliterations",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Mandarin translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Russian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "When I think back on those times we shared together, I can't help but feel a little sad.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "Think back to a time when you were happy.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To think about a time or experience; to recall."
      ],
      "id": "en-think_back-en-verb-1VAyAm71",
      "links": [
        [
          "think",
          "think"
        ],
        [
          "time",
          "time"
        ],
        [
          "experience",
          "experience"
        ],
        [
          "recall",
          "recall"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To think about a time or experience; to recall."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "huíxiǎng",
          "sense": "think about a time or experience",
          "word": "回想"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "huíyì",
          "sense": "think about a time or experience",
          "word": "回憶 /回忆"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "think about a time or experience",
          "word": "muistella"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "vspominatʹ",
          "sense": "think about a time or experience",
          "word": "вспоминать"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-think back.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/76/En-au-think_back.ogg/En-au-think_back.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/En-au-think_back.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "think back"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "thinks back",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "thinking back",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "thought back",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "thought back",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "think<,,thought> back"
      },
      "expansion": "think back (third-person singular simple present thinks back, present participle thinking back, simple past and past participle thought back)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrasal verbs",
        "English phrasal verbs formed with \"back\"",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with Mandarin translations",
        "Terms with Russian translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "When I think back on those times we shared together, I can't help but feel a little sad.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "Think back to a time when you were happy.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To think about a time or experience; to recall."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "think",
          "think"
        ],
        [
          "time",
          "time"
        ],
        [
          "experience",
          "experience"
        ],
        [
          "recall",
          "recall"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To think about a time or experience; to recall."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-think back.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/76/En-au-think_back.ogg/En-au-think_back.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/En-au-think_back.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "huíxiǎng",
      "sense": "think about a time or experience",
      "word": "回想"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "huíyì",
      "sense": "think about a time or experience",
      "word": "回憶 /回忆"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "think about a time or experience",
      "word": "muistella"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "vspominatʹ",
      "sense": "think about a time or experience",
      "word": "вспоминать"
    }
  ],
  "word": "think back"
}

Download raw JSONL data for think back meaning in English (2.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (c15a5ce and 5c11237). 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.