Word.ws English Dictionary

backchannel

backchannel is the alternative form of back channel.

Meaning of back channel

Noun

back channel (plural back channels)

  1. The smaller of two channels in a river that diverge to form an island.
  2. A secondary channel of activity, typically in parallel with primary channels and somewhat independent of them.
  3. An unofficial communications channel used to make informal or subversive negotiations.
  4. A real-time online discussion that occurs simultaneously with a verbal presentation.
    • TodaysMeet visualizes collaborative and parallel conversations in a backchannel through a digital classroom where every student has a voice.2017, Di Zou, James Lambert, “Feedback methods for student voice in the digital age”, in British Journal of Educational Technology, volume 48, number 5, page 1083
  5. A gesture or short prompt by which a listener invites a speaker to continue.

Verb

backchannel (third-person singular simple present backchannels, present participle (US) backchanneling or (UK) backchannelling, simple past and past participle (US) backchanneled or (UK) backchannelled)

  1. (transitive) To employ a back channel.
    1. (transitive) To employ non-verbal (oral and visual) means to influence a speaker without interruption.

Forms of backchannel

Noun
pluralbackchannels
alternative formback-channel
Verb
third-person singular presentbackchannels
present participle USbackchanneling
present participle UKbackchannelling
past participle USbackchanneled
past USbackchanneled
past participle UKbackchannelled
past UKbackchannelled

Origin of backchannel

From back + channel.

Questions about backchannel

What does backchannel mean?
Backchannel means to employ a back channel.
What is backchannel the alternative form of?
Backchannel is the alternative form of back channel.
What part of speech is backchannel?
Backchannel is a verb.
What is the past tense of backchannel?
The past tense of backchannel is backchanneled.

Words near backchannel in the dictionary

  1. backcasts
  2. backchain
  3. backchained
  4. backchaining
  5. backchains
  6. backchannel
  7. backchanneled
  8. backchanneling
  9. backchannelled
  10. backchannelling
  11. backchannels

Source and license

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