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backpedal

/ˈbækˌpɛdəɫ/verb, noun

backpedal is spelled B-A-C-K-P-E-D-A-L: 9 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 15 million words in written English, the 115,751st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, backpedal means “To pedal backwards on a bicycle” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in backpedal?

Letters9: B-A-C-K-P-E-D-A-L
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 15 million words; the 115,751st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

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).

How common is backpedal?

Backpedal appears about once in every 15 million words in written English, the 115,751st 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 backpedal?

  • /ˈbækˌpɛdəɫ/

Backpedal has 3 syllables (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-backpedal.ogg, En-au-backpedal.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of backpedal

  • backpedals present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • backpedaling US, participle, present
  • backpedalling UK, participle, present
  • backpedaled US, participle, past
  • backpedalled UK, participle, past
  • back-pedal
  • backpeddle

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does backpedal mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To pedal backwards on a bicycle.

  2. 2

    To step backwards.

    The player had to backpedal before catching the ball.

  3. 3

    To distance oneself from an earlier claim or statement; back off from an idea.

    Though initially adopting a hard-line stance, the politician soon started to backpedal.

noun

  1. 1

    An act of backpedalling (in any sense).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Backpedal in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchrétropédaler (to pedal backwards on a bicycle), reculer (to step backwards), faire marche arrière, faire machine arrière (to distance oneself from an earlier claim or…)
Germanrückwärts treten (to pedal backwards on a bicycle), zurücktreten, nach hinten treten, einen Schritt zurück machen (to step backwards), einen Rückzieher machen, zurückziehen (to distance oneself from an earlier claim or…)
Portugueseretropedalar, contrapedalar, pedalar para trás (to pedal backwards on a bicycle), recuar, retroceder (to step backwards), voltar atrás (to distance oneself from an earlier claim or…)
Spanishretropedalear, contrapedalear (to pedal backwards on a bicycle), retroceder, recular, recejar, cejar (to step backwards)

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 backpedal come from?

From back + pedal.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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