Word.ws English Dictionary

backpack

/ˈbæk.pæk/

backpack noun: a knapsack, sometimes mounted on a light frame, but always supported by straps, worn on a person’s back for the purpose of carrying things, especially when hiking, or on a student's back when carrying books.

backpack: a knapsack, sometimes mounted on a light frame, but always supported by straps, worn on a person’s...
Image: WrS.tm.pl, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

backpack (plural backpacks)

  1. A knapsack, sometimes mounted on a light frame, but always supported by straps, worn on a person’s back for the purpose of carrying things, especially when hiking, or on a student's back when carrying books.
    • Rachel discovered that she could also keep things in her backpack that were important to her, nobody would know about them because they would be hidden. These important things included a small round rock that she had found […]2011, Thelma J. Miller, What's in Your Backpack?, page 8
    • Many seats carry reservation labels, while the luggage racks are festooned with backpacks and suitcases.2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 77
  2. A similarly placed item containing a parachute or other life support equipment.

Verb

backpack (third-person singular simple present backpacks, present participle backpacking, simple past and past participle backpacked)

  1. (intransitive) To hike and camp overnight in backcountry with one's gear carried in a backpack.
    • I spent a month backpacking in the Rockies.
  2. (intransitive) To engage in low-cost, generally urban, travel with minimal luggage and frugal accommodation.
  3. (rare, transitive) To place or carry (an item or items) in a backpack.
    • Astronauts backpack oxygen during spacewalks.
    • I planned to go to jungle today and backpacked my things which contained^([sic]) food and a note book.2020, Akara September 2020 Magazine, page 103

backpack meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

backpack in Hindi

worn on a person's back, e.g., for hiking
बैकपैक baikpaik

backpack in Tamil

முதுகுப்பை, முதுகில் அணியும் பை, தோள்பை, சுமைப்பை

backpack in Urdu

worn on a person's back, e.g., for hiking
بَیک پَیک baik paik

backpack in Bengali

worn on a person's back, e.g., for hiking
ব্যাকপ্যাক bêkoppak
More languagesFewer languages
backpack in Gujarati
દફતર daphtar
backpack in Tagalog
kabalyas, bag
backpack in Arabic
حَقِيبَة ظَهْر ḥaqībat ẓahr
backpack in Malay
ransel, beg galas
backpack in Indonesian
ransel, tas punggung
backpack in Thai
เป้ bpêe, กระเป๋าเป้สะพายหลัง grà-bpǎo bpêe sà-paai lǎng
backpack in Vietnamese
ba lô
backpack in Myanmar
ကျောပိုးအိတ် kyau:pui:it

Examples of backpack in a sentence

  • Somehow, she squashed all her books into her backpack, which was now too heavy to carry.
  • My sleeping bag fell off my backpack into the water, while we were knapsacking up the mountain.
  • I put my e-dictionary in my backpack and headed off to school.

All 40 example sentences with backpack

Synonyms of backpack

All synonyms of backpack

Forms of backpack

Noun
pluralbackpacks
alternative formback pack
alternative formbagpack
Verb
third-person singular presentbackpacks
present participlebackpacking
past participlebackpacked
pastbackpacked

Plural of backpack: backpacks

Origin of backpack

From back + pack. First attested in 1896.

Words formed from backpack

Phrases with backpack

Questions about backpack

What does backpack mean?
Backpack means a knapsack, sometimes mounted on a light frame, but always supported by straps, worn on a person’s back for the purpose of carrying things, especially when hiking, or on a student's back when carrying books.
What is backpack in Hindi?
Backpack in Hindi is बैकपैक (baikpaik). See Backpack meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is backpack?
Backpack can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce backpack?
Backpack is pronounced /ˈbæk.pæk/.
What is the plural of backpack?
The plural of backpack is backpacks.

Words near backpack in the dictionary

  1. backorders
  2. backout
  3. backouts
  4. backover
  5. backovers
  6. backpack
  7. backpack funding
  8. backpack nuke
  9. backpack nukes
  10. backpack rap
  11. backpack rapper

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: backpack (page history and authors); backpack (Tamil 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-backpack.ogg.

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