back
/bæk/adjective, adverb, noun, verb
back is spelled B-A-C-K. The wrong spelling people search most is bakc: about 50 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 417 of all searches for the word. Back is an adjective meaning “At or near the rear”.
How many letters and syllables are in back?
| Letters | 4: B-A-C-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1,096 times per million words; the 96th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, bakc, about 50 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell back?
Back is spelled B-A-C-K. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 352 of the searches for back in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is back?
Back appears 1,096 times per million words in written English, the 96th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce back?
- US /bæk/
- US [bæk]
- US [bak]
Back has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-back.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with back
Also written: back, sack and crack, sack, back and crack.
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with back?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as back from its last stressed vowel (/æk/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of back
- more back comparative
- most back superlative
- further back comparative
- farther back comparative
- furthest back superlative
- farthest back superlative
- backs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- backing participle, present
- backed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does back mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
At or near the rear.
Go in the back door of the house.
- 2
Returned or restored to a previous place or condition.
He was on vacation, but now he’s back.
- 3
Not current.
I’d like to find a back issue of that magazine.
- 4
Situated away from the main or most frequented areas.
They took a back road.
- 5
In arrears; overdue.
They still owe three months’ back rent.
- 6
Moving or operating backward.
back action
- 7
Pronounced with the highest part of the body of the tongue toward the back of the mouth, near the soft palate (most often describing a vowel).
The vowel of lot has a back vowel in most dialects of England.
adverb
- 1
To or in a previous condition or place.
He gave back the money.
- 2
In a direction opposite to that in which someone or something is facing or normally pointing.
Someone pushed me in the chest and I fell back.
- 3
In a direction opposite to the usual or desired direction of movement or progress, physically or figuratively.
Wind the film back a few frames.
- 4
Towards, into or in the past.
These records go back years.
- 5
Away from someone or something; at a distance.
Keep back! It could explode at any moment!
- 6
Away from the front or from an edge (of something or someone).
Sit all the way back in your chair.
- 7
So as to shrink, recede or move aside, or cause to do so.
This tree is dying back.
- 8
In a manner that impedes.
Fear held him back.
noun
- 1
The rear of the body, especially the part between the neck and the end of the spine and opposite the chest and belly.
Could you please scratch my back?
- 2
The spine and associated tissues.
I hurt my back lifting those crates.
- 3
slangLarge and attractive buttocks.
- 4
The part of a piece of clothing which covers the back.
I still need to finish the back of your dress.
- 5
The backrest, the part of a piece of furniture which receives the human back.
Can you fix the back of this chair?
- 6
obsoleteThat part of the body that bears clothing. (Now used only in the phrase clothes on one's back.)
- 7
That which is farthest away from the front.
He sat in the back of the room.
- 8
The side of any object which is opposite the front or useful side.
Turn the book over and look at the back.
- 9
A large shallow vat; a cistern, tub, or trough, used by brewers, distillers, dyers, picklers, gluemakers, and others, for mixing or cooling wort, holding water, hot glue, etc.
- 10
A ferryboat.
verb
- 1
To go in the reverse direction.
The train backed into the station.
- 2
To support.
I back you all the way.
- 3
To change direction contrary to the normal pattern; that is, to shift anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere, or clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
- 4
To brace the yards so that the wind presses on the front of the sail, to slow the ship.
- 5
To lay out a second, smaller anchor to provide additional holding power.
- 6
UKTo stand still behind another dog which has pointed.
- 7
To push or force backwards.
to back oxen
- 8
obsoleteTo get upon the back of; to mount.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate back?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of back: bak.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Back in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | de derrière, postérieur , écarté , de retour , dos , derrière |
| German | hinterer, Rück- , abgelegen , früher, alt, veraltet |
| Portuguese | de trás, traseiro, dos fundos, posterior , afastado , antigo |
| Spanish | de atrás, trasero, posterior , anterior, viejo, atrasado |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does back come from?
From Middle English bak, from Old English bæc, from Proto-West Germanic *bak, from Proto-Germanic *baką, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“to bend”). The adverb represents an aphetic form of aback. Compare Middle Low German bak (“back”), from Old Saxon bak, and West Frisian bekling (“chair back”), Old High German bah, Swedish and Norwegian bak. Cognate with German Bache (“sow [adult female hog]”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).