Word.ws English Dictionary

back-form

back-form noun: a back-formation; a word formed by removing a perceived morpheme from an older word.

Noun

back-form (plural back-forms)

  1. A back-formation; a word formed by removing a perceived morpheme from an older word.

Verb

back-form (third-person singular simple present back-forms, present participle back-forming, simple past and past participle back-formed)

  1. (transitive) To form a word by a back-formation process.

Forms of back-form

Noun
pluralback-forms
alternative formbackform
Verb
third-person singular presentback-forms
present participleback-forming
past participleback-formed
pastback-formed

Origin of back-form

A back-formation from back-formation. By surface analysis, back- + form.

Questions about back-form

What does back-form mean?
Back-form means a back-formation; a word formed by removing a perceived morpheme from an older word.
What part of speech is back-form?
Back-form can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of back-form?
The plural of back-form is back-forms.

Words near back-form in the dictionary

  1. back-fence
  2. back-fill
  3. back-filled
  4. back-filling
  5. back-fills
  6. back-form
  7. back-formation
  8. back-formations
  9. back-formed
  10. back-forming
  11. back-forms

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: back-form (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “back-form.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/back-form. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.