Word.ws English Dictionary

back when

back when is the alternative form of way back when.

Meaning of way back when

Adverb

way back when

  1. (idiomatic) At a time in the distant past.
    • The book's enduring power is also evident in its big-headed tripods from outer space, described perfectly by Wells way back when.2005 July 8, Caryn James, “Critic's Notebook: When the Film Outshines The Novel”, in New York Times, retrieved 02 Mar 2018

See all 2 meanings of way back when

Questions about back when

What is back when the alternative form of?
Back when is the alternative form of way back when.

Words near back when in the dictionary

  1. back washing
  2. back water
  3. back waters
  4. back wheel
  5. back wheels
  6. back when
  7. back yard
  8. back yards
  9. back, crack and sack
  10. back, crack and sacks
  11. back, sack and crack

Source and license

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