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 stamp
  2. back stamped
  3. back stamping
  4. back stamps
  5. back stories
  6. back story
  7. back straight
  8. back straights
  9. back street
  10. back streets
  11. back stretch

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.