backwater

noun, verb

backwater is a noun meaning “The water held back by a dam or other obstruction” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled B-A-C-K-W-A-T-E-R and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 1 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of backwater is backwaters.

What does backwater mean?

noun

1
The water held back by a dam or other obstruction.
2
A remote place: somewhere that remains unaffected by new events, progresses, ideas, etc; any field of endeavor that figuratively resembles such a place.
Near-synonyms: (place) jerkwater town, one-horse town, Podunk; see also Thesaurus:remote place
3
A rowing stroke in which the oar is pushed forward to stop the boat; see back water
4
Water used in the papermaking process. Recycled to reduce usage of fresh water, and usually containing residual amounts of chemicals and fibres.

verb

1
To row or paddle a backwater stroke.
2
To vacillate on a long-held position.

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

How do you pronounce backwater?

General-American
Australia

Backwater 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-backwater.wav, En-au-backwater.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of backwater

backwaters plural, present, singular, he/she/it
back water
back-water
backwatering participle, present
backwatered participle, past

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

How common is backwater?

Backwater appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,320th most frequent word form in the list.

backwater0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Words people confuse with backwater

Also written: back-water (one word or two).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Backwater in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

Language	Words
French	patelin, trou perdu (a remote place; somewhere that remains…), lâcher prise, abandonner, vaciller (to vacillate on a long-held position)
German	Kaff, Dorf (a remote place; somewhere that remains…)
Portuguese	cafundó (a remote place; somewhere that remains…)
Spanish	pueblucho, villorrio (despective), poblacho (despective) (a remote place; somewhere that remains…), ciar (To row or paddle a backwater stroke)

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 backwater come from?

From back + water.

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