foldback
noun
foldback is a noun meaning “An overturned flap” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-O-L-D-B-A-C-K, and it appears about once in every 78 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of foldback is foldbacks.
What does foldback mean?
noun
- 1
An overturned flap.
- 2
A current-limiting feature in power supplies and amplifiers.
- 3
The use of rear-facing heavy-duty loudspeakers on stage during live music performances, to improve sound for the audience or to allow performers to hear and monitor themselves.
- 4
A denatured (single-strand) DNA molecule that has formed base pair bonds with itself.
- 5
A chromosome that contains sequences which support foldback; A DNA molecule with a base sequence or sequences that are repeated in reverse order.
- 6
A portion of a storyline that branches based on user choices but where all branches eventually reconverge to a single inevitable event.
- 7
A multimethod research approach that includes open-ended interviewing, nominal group dialogue, survey and attitude scaling techniques, and multidimensional and cluster analyses.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of foldback
- foldbacks plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is foldback?
Foldback appears about once in every 78 million words in written English, the 279,513th 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 foldback come from?
From fold + back.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).