# catastrophic backtracking

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. An excessively large amount of backtracking that occurs with certain regular expressions, due to an exponentially large number of possible matching paths to check.

## Etymology
From catastrophic + backtracking.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/catastrophic-backtracking