English Words: B

31,241 words · Page 12 of 625

back cataloguenoun

A listing of all the works of a specific artist, or all the books, records etc of a specific publisher, including works that are no longer available.

back channelnoun

The smaller of two channels in a river that diverge to form an island.

back chatnoun

Alternative form of backchat.

back crawlnoun

A style of swimming using the backstroke.

back doornoun

A subsidiary entrance to a building or house at its rear, normally away from the street.

back downverb

To take a less aggressive position in a conflict than one previously had, or has planned to have.

back eastadv

In the eastern part of a country or region.

back endnoun

The rear, back, or unseen portion (of something).

back fieldnoun

Alternative form of backfield.

back firenoun

A small, controlled fire set in the path of a larger uncontrolled fire, in order to limit the spread of the large fire by removing its fuel.

back fivenoun

Collectively, the backs (the 2 wings, fullback, outside centre and inside centre).

back fortynoun

The remote part of a farm.

back fournoun

The set of four defenders in a team.

back gammon playernoun

A person, chiefly a homosexual, who has anal sex.

back gardennoun

A garden at the rear of a property.

back gatenoun

The gate at the back of a property, especially a residential property, often leading onto a lane.

back groundnoun

Obsolete form of background.

back holenoun

The anus (now sometimes especially of a trans man).

back homeadv

In one’s hometown.

back housenoun

Alternative form of backhouse: any outbuilding; an outhouse.

back inverb

To reverse a vehicle into a space.

back in the dayprep_phrase

In the distant past; especially, at a time fondly remembered (the good old days).

back in the knife drawer, Miss Sharpphrase

Said as a retort to somebody who has made a cutting remark.

back in the saddlephrase

Returned to one's normal, healthy, functioning state, as from an interruption or setback.

back intoverb

To advance to the post-season as a result of another team's loss, especially where one's own team has also lost.

back lanenoun

An alleyway that runs behind a row of houses, or between rows of houses.

back linenoun

Collectively, the defenders of a team.

back loadnoun

Alternative form of backload.

back matternoun

The parts of a book that appear after the main portion of the body text.

back numbernoun

A back issue of a magazine, etc.

back o' Bourkeadv

At or to an extremely remote place.

back of beyondnoun

A very remote place.

back of one's mindnoun

One's remote memory.

back of the booknoun

Less important or less hard-hitting material relegated to the later pages of a print publication or the later stages of a television broadcast.

back of the netintj

A smug expression of triumph or happiness.

Back of the Wightname

An area on the south coast of the Isle of Wight, England.

back offverb

To move backwards away from something.

back officenoun

The IT and infrastructure support services for a company, separate from the public face of the business.

back ontoverb

To reverse a vehicle onto something.

back outverb

To reverse (a vehicle) from a confined space.

back paynoun

A withheld payment for work which has already been completed, or which could have been completed had the employee not been prevented from doing so.

back paymentnoun

An overdue payment from a debtor to a creditor on money owed.

back pointernoun

A pointer that reciprocates another structure's pointer to its own containing structure, typically found in doubly linked lists and trees.

back postnoun

far post

back projectionnoun

A cinematic technique in which live action is filmed in front of a screen on which the background action or a background scene is projected.

back roadnoun

A secondary road, a little-used road, a road through rural areas sometimes used as an alternative to main roads.

back seatnoun

Any of the seats in the rear of a vehicle.

back stairsnoun

Alternative spelling of backstairs.

back storynoun

Alternative form of backstory.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English alphabetical index for the letter B contains 31,241 headwords drawn from our Wiktionary-derived dictionary table. At 50 entries per page the browse splits into 625 pages, and you are currently viewing page 12. Every row above is a dictionary-backed entry with a canonical slug, and each links through to a full definition page with pronunciation, senses, etymology, and related-word data where available.

On this page 50 of 50 entries carry a part-of-speech tag and 50 carry at least one stored definition. Coverage varies across letters because Wiktionary volunteers build entries at different speeds for different parts of the alphabet, letters with common starting sounds (S, C, T, P) usually have the densest coverage, while less frequent starters (X, Q, Z) tend to have shorter but more specialised lists. PlainSpell surfaces whatever data is present and links back to the source when a definition is not yet recorded.

For readers using this index as a spelling reference, the guarantee is that every form you see on the list is a documented English headword, not a guess, not a derived inflection lacking a lemma row. If a word you expected to find is absent from the "B" list, it usually means the form exists only as an inflection of another lemma (e.g. a past participle stored under the infinitive) or the entry has not yet been imported from Wiktionary. Use the search bar or the misspelling lookup to resolve these cases.