back-to-back
/ˌbæk.təˈbæk/
"back-to-back" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“back-to-back” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sequential or consecutive.
Corpus desk
Index EN-back-to-back · back-to-back · English
back-to-back · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | back-to-back |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˌbæk.təˈbæk/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “back-to-back” in English
Rare enough to double-check
back-to-back is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˌbæk.təˈbæk/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for back-to-back, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, 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-to-back, spelled B-A-C-K---T-O---B-A-C-K.
Definition
- 1Sequential or consecutive.
- 2With one's back facing that of somebody else.
- 3Emerging in exactly opposite directions.
- 4Having a party wall at the rear.
- 5Synonym of wired (“being a pair in seven card stud with one face up and one face down”).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how back-to-back appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Ruth and Gehrig hit back-to-back home runs.
They sat through two back-to-back movies.
This word in other languages
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.