Word.ws English Dictionary

back formation

back formation is the alternative form of back-formation.

Meaning of back-formation

Noun

back-formation (countable and uncountable, plural back-formations)

  1. (uncountable) The process by which a new word is formed from an older word by interpreting the former as a derivative of the latter, often by removing a morpheme (real or perceived) from the older word, such as the verb burgle, formed by removing -ar (perceived as an agent-noun suffix) from burglar.
  2. (countable) A word created in this way.
    • Back-formations, such as tambour (for “play the tambourine”), are a staple of comedic wordplay.
    Synonyms:
    back-form

Forms of back formation

pluralback formations

Questions about back formation

What is back formation the alternative form of?
Back formation is the alternative form of back-formation.

Words near back formation in the dictionary

  1. back five
  2. back fives
  3. back foot
  4. back foot shot
  5. back foot shots
  6. back formation
  7. back formations
  8. back forties
  9. back forty
  10. back four
  11. back fours

Source and license

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