Word.ws English Dictionary

back-formed

back-formed adjective: formed by back-formation. Also the simple past and past participle of back-form.

Adjective

back-formed (not comparable)

  1. Formed by back-formation.
    • To coin an example from this very word [sc. backformation], we might use the phrase, «such and such a word is back-formed from etc.»1911, Vilhelm Bladin, “X. ‘Back-formed’ denominatives”, in Studies on Denominative Verbs in English: Inaugural Dissertation, quoted in OED, page 52

Also used as

back-formed is also the simple past and past participle of back-form.

Origin of back-formed

First attested in 1911 (adjective sense 1).

Questions about back-formed

What does back-formed mean?
Back-formed means formed by back-formation.
What part of speech is back-formed?
Back-formed is an adjective.

Words near back-formed in the dictionary

  1. back-filling
  2. back-fills
  3. back-form
  4. back-formation
  5. back-formations
  6. back-formed
  7. back-forming
  8. back-forms
  9. back-friend
  10. back-friends
  11. back-ganging

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: back-formed (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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