backbend
noun, verb
backbend is a noun meaning “A move in which the performer bends backwards until the hands touch the floor or catches him/herself with the hands” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled B-A-C-K-B-E-N-D, and it appears about once in every 44 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of backbend is backbends.
What does backbend mean?
noun
- 1
A move in which the performer bends backwards until the hands touch the floor or catches him/herself with the hands.
verb
- 1
To perform such a move.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of backbend
- backbends plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- back bend
- back-bend
- backbending participle, present
- backbended participle, past
- backbent participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is backbend?
Backbend appears about once in every 44 million words in written English, the 204,233rd 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).
Where does backbend come from?
From back + bend.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).