back out

verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"back-out" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“back out” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
8
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To reverse (a vehicle) from a confined space.

Corpus desk

Index EN-back-out · back out · English

back out · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "B" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for back out
PropertyValue
Headwordback out
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters8
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “back out” in English

back outranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

back out is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 7 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for back out in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is back out, spelled B-A-C-K- -O-U-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    To reverse (a vehicle) from a confined space.
  2. 2
    To withdraw from something one has agreed to do.
  3. 3
    To convince (someone) to withdraw from a challenge.
  4. 4
    To bet on someone losing.
  5. 5
    To undo (a change).
  6. 6
    To exit a mode or function.
  7. 7
    To draw from behind the back (a knife etc.) (as also bare back).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how back out appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. He backed out of the garage.
  2. She backed out of organizing the fund-raising.

This word in other languages

desdecirse(Español)aussteigen(Deutsch)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "back out"?
"back out" is spelled B-A-C-K- -O-U-T.
What does "back out" mean?
As a verb, "back out" means: To reverse (a vehicle) from a confined space.
What language does "back out" come from?
"back out" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list