Word.ws English Dictionary

back-reference

back-reference is the alternative form of backreference.

Meaning of backreference

Noun

backreference (plural backreferences)

  1. (regular expressions) An item in a regular expression equivalent to the text matched by an earlier pattern in the expression.
    • The third part of the regular expression, \1, is the backreference and tells ColdFusion to refer back to the first subexpression[…]2003, Rob Brooks-Bilson, Programming ColdFusion MX

See all 2 meanings of backreference

Forms of back-reference

pluralback-references

Origin of back-reference

From back + reference.

Questions about back-reference

What is back-reference the alternative form of?
Back-reference is the alternative form of backreference.

Words near back-reference in the dictionary

  1. back-rank mate
  2. back-rank mates
  3. back-rapper
  4. back-rappers
  5. back-reef
  6. back-reference
  7. back-references
  8. back-rower
  9. back-rowers
  10. back-scatter
  11. back-scattered

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: back-reference (page history and authors); backreference (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.

Last updated:

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