Word.ws English Dictionary

backblock

backblock noun: a remote tract of land in the interior; hence (in plural) sparsely populated country far from major cities and lacking conveniences common in urban areas.

Noun

backblock (plural backblocks)

  1. (Australia, New Zealand, plural-normally) A remote tract of land in the interior; hence (in plural) sparsely populated country far from major cities and lacking conveniences common in urban areas.
    • Near-synonyms: upcountry, interior, hinterland
    • I speak solely for the backblock roads, and I contend that the time has arrived when the Government should turn its attention to the metalling of these roads.1931, New Zealand House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, volume 229, page 281
  2. (Australia, excessive, informal, plural-normally) The most distally outlying suburb among a set of suburbs.
  3. Land behind which fronts on water; land without a permanent watercourse.

Examples of backblock in a sentence

  • It has happened in other districts that new settlement has turned the old centres into isolated backblocks.1955, Helen Wilson, My First Eighty Years, page 185:
  • The weeping man was an emancipist who had a backblock in the next valley & sometimes came over to see his cobber the shepherd, both being Roscommon men.2001, Richard Flanagan, Gould's Book of Fish, Vintage, published 2016, page 82:

Synonyms of backblock

All synonyms of backblock

Forms of backblock

pluralbackblocks
alternative formback-block
alternative formback block

Origin of backblock

From back + block.

Questions about backblock

What does backblock mean?
Backblock means a remote tract of land in the interior; hence (in plural) sparsely populated country far from major cities and lacking conveniences common in urban areas.
How do you use backblock in a sentence?
It has happened in other districts that new settlement has turned the old centres into isolated backblocks.
What part of speech is backblock?
Backblock is a noun.
What is the plural of backblock?
The plural of backblock is backblocks.

Words near backblock in the dictionary

  1. backbitingly
  2. backbitings
  3. backbitten
  4. backblast
  5. backblasts
  6. backblock
  7. backblocks
  8. backblow
  9. backblows
  10. backboard
  11. backboarded

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: backblock (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: EN-AU ck1 backblock.ogg.

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