Word.ws English Dictionary

back-story

back-story is the alternative form of backstory.

Meaning of backstory

Noun

backstory (plural backstories)

  1. The previous experiences and life of a person, specifically (narratology, especially in film, television) a character in a dramatic work.
    • What’s the backstory of our new colleague?
    Synonyms:
    background story
  2. A fictitious account of a person's history designed to conceal their actual history and motives.
    Synonyms:
    cover story

Forms of back-story

pluralback-stories

Questions about back-story

What is back-story the alternative form of?
Back-story is the alternative form of backstory.

Words near back-story in the dictionary

  1. back-stabby
  2. back-stairs
  3. back-stop
  4. back-stops
  5. back-stories
  6. back-story
  7. back-street
  8. back-stretch
  9. back-stretches
  10. back-sweeten
  11. back-sweetened

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: back-story (page history and authors); backstory (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-story.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/back-story. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.