backbone
UK/ˈbækˌbəʊn//ˈbækˌboʊn/
backbone noun: the series of vertebrae, separated by disks, that encloses and protects the spinal cord, and runs down the middle of the back in vertebrate animals.
Noun
backbone (countable and uncountable, plural backbones)
- The series of vertebrae, separated by disks, that encloses and protects the spinal cord, and runs down the middle of the back in vertebrate animals.
- Any fundamental support, structure, or infrastructure.
- Before automobiles, railroads were a backbone of commerce.
- Undoubtedly it can be said that the humble 0-6-0 has been the backbone for general service, or general utility on British railways right from their earliest days, and is likely to remain so.1945 November and December, H. C. Casserley, “Random Reflections on British Locomotive Types—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 320
- Courage, fortitude, or strength.
- He would make a good manager, if he had a little more backbone.
- His appearance was certainly that of a hairdresser's dummy; but in the great demoralization of the land he kept up his appearance. That's backbone. His starched collars and got-up shirt-fronts were achievements of character. He had been out nearly three years; and, later, I could not help asking...1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 207
backbone meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
backbone in Tamil
- series of vertebrae that encloses the spinal cord
- முதுகெலும்பு mutukelumpu
- any fundamental support, structure, or infrastructure
- முதுகெலும்பு mutukelumpu
- courage, fortitude, or strength
- முதுகெலும்பு mutukelumpu
backbone in Urdu
- ریڑھ کی ہڈی
backbone in Bengali
- শিরদাড়া, মেরুদন্ড, দৃঢ়তা, প্রধান অবলম্বন
backbone in Telugu
- backbone
- కరాళము karāḷamu
More languagesFewer languages
- backbone in Malayalam
- നട്ടെല്ല്, നടുവെല്ല്, നിടുവെല്ല്, മുതുകെല്ല്
- backbone in Kannada
- ಬೆನ್ನೆಲುಬು, ಬೆನ್ನುಮೂಳೆ, ಬೆನ್ನು ಹುರಿ, ಮುಖ್ಯಾಧಾರ
- backbone in Sanskrit
- कषेरुका kaṣerukā, अनूक ánūka
- backbone in Assamese
- ৰাজহাড় razhar
- backbone in Tagalog
- guluguran, bangananan, gulugod
- backbone in Arabic
- عَمُود فَقْرِيّ ʕamūd faqriyy, دِعَامَة diʕāma, شَجَاعَة šajāʕa
- backbone in Malay
- tulang belakang
- backbone in Persian
- ستون فقرات sotun-e faqarât
- backbone in Thai
- กระดูกสันหลัง grà-dùuk-sǎn-lǎng
- backbone in Vietnamese
- xương sống
Examples of backbone in a sentence
- East [Street] and West Street form a single thoroughfare running as a backbone through the village, flanked by neat, painted cottages of predominantly 18th-century brick.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 220, about Hambledon, Hants:
- The backbone of our research is an extensive corpus of contemporary spoken Esperanto.2022, Sabine Fiedler, Cyril Robert Brosch, “Methods and data” (chapter 5), in Esperanto – Lingua Franca and Language Community, John...
- When operating on customer MAC (C-MAC) and service MAC (S-MAC) addresses, PBB uses a new backbone MAC (B-MAC) address.2025 April 17, “Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) and EVPN Integration Overview”, in Juniper Networks, archived from the original on 01 Jul...
Synonyms of backbone
Forms of backbone
| plural | backbones |
|---|---|
| alternative form | back bone |
Origin of backbone
From Middle English bakbon, bakebon, bac-bon; equivalent to back + bone. Compare the semantically analogous English ridgebone.
Words formed from backbone
Questions about backbone
- What does backbone mean?
- Backbone means the series of vertebrae, separated by disks, that encloses and protects the spinal cord, and runs down the middle of the back in vertebrate animals.
- What is backbone in Tamil?
- Backbone in Tamil is முதுகெலும்பு (mutukelumpu). See Backbone meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use backbone in a sentence?
- East [Street] and West Street form a single thoroughfare running as a backbone through the village, flanked by neat, painted cottages of predominantly 18th-century brick.
- What part of speech is backbone?
- Backbone is a noun.
- How do you pronounce backbone?
- Backbone is pronounced /ˈbækˌbəʊn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of backbone?
- The plural of backbone is backbones.
Words near backbone in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: backbone (page history and authors); backbone (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); backbone (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); కరాళము (Telugu) (page history and authors); backbone (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); backbone (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); अनूक (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); ৰাজহাড় (Assamese) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-backbone.ogg.
Cite this entry: “backbone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/backbone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.