Back-side or backside?
back-side is a noun meaning “Alternative form of backside”; backside is a noun meaning “The back side of anything, the part opposite its front, particularly”. back-side is written with a hyphen and backside as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between back-side and backside?
| back-side | backside | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun, adjective |
| Meaning | Alternative form of backside | The back side of anything, the part opposite its front, particularly The back side of an estate: the backyard and outbuildings behind a main house, especially (UK dialect, euphemistic) an outhouse Approaching an obstacle backward |
| Example | none recorded | The building's backside faced an alley and was covered in grime and graffiti |
| Forms | back-sides | backsides |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈbækˌsaɪd/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 1.6 times per million words |
Sources: back-side and backside in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of back-side and backside
back-side
- 1
Alternative form of backside
backside
- 1
The back side of anything, the part opposite its front, particularly
- 2
Approaching an obstacle backward
- 3
The back side of an estate: the backyard and outbuildings behind a main house, especially (UK dialect, euphemistic) an outhouse
The building's backside faced an alley and was covered in grime and graffiti
- 4
A person's buttocks
Having ridden the horse all day for the first time, I had painful blisters on my backside
- 5
The reverse or opposite of anything
- 6
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see back, side
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, back-side or backside?
back-side is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; backside 1.6 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search back-side vs backside?
“back-side vs backside” is searched about 20 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“backside vs back-side”, “back-side or backside”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.