Word.ws English Dictionary

backfill

/ˈbækfɪl/

backfill verb: to refill a hole with the material dug out of it.

Verb

backfill (third-person singular simple present backfills, present participle backfilling, simple past and past participle backfilled)

  1. To refill a hole with the material dug out of it.
    • Clay excavated for the new river channel has been used to backfill the old watercourse, while embankment vegetation was also moved from the old channel to the new in order to preserve a habitat for the rare Four Spotted Moths that live there.2020 April 8, Paul Stephen, “ECML dive-under drives divergence”, in Rail, page 43
  2. To refill an excavation unit to restore the former ground surface and/or to preserve the unit and make it recognizable as having been excavated.
    • We backfilled the cistern with pea gravel to discourage its use as a refuse container.
  3. (US) To provide reserve support.
  4. (US) To replenish or restock due to attrition or loss.
    • The company backfilled Joe's position after he was terminated.
  5. To enter an online game that's already in progress, replacing a player who left early.

Noun

backfill (countable and uncountable, plural backfills)

  1. The material that has been used to refill an excavation.
  2. (US) Reserve support personnel.
  3. (US) That which backfills; a replacement.
  4. Material in a story set earlier in the past, providing history or context for the current action.

backfill meaning in Bengali

backfill in Bengali

রিজার্ভ সাপোর্ট প্রদান করা, কর্মী, কাদা, রিজার্ভ সাপোর্ট কর্মী, প্রতিস্থাপন

Forms of backfill

Verb
third-person singular presentbackfills
present participlebackfilling
past participlebackfilled
pastbackfilled
alternative formback-fill
Noun
pluralbackfills

Past tense of backfill: backfilled

Origin of backfill

From back + fill.

Words formed from backfill

  • backfill bias

Questions about backfill

What does backfill mean?
Backfill means to refill a hole with the material dug out of it.
What is backfill in Bengali?
Backfill in Bengali is রিজার্ভ সাপোর্ট প্রদান করা, কর্মী, কাদা. See Backfill meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is backfill?
Backfill can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce backfill?
Backfill is pronounced /ˈbækfɪl/.
What is the past tense of backfill?
The past tense of backfill is backfilled.

Words near backfill in the dictionary

  1. backfields
  2. backfile
  3. backfile conversion
  4. backfile conversions
  5. backfiles
  6. backfill
  7. backfilled
  8. backfiller
  9. backfillers
  10. backfilling
  11. backfillings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: backfill (page history and authors); backfill (Bengali Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-backfill.wav.

Cite this entry: “backfill.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/backfill. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.