Word.ws English Dictionary

backspelling

backspelling is the alternative form of back-spelling.

Meaning of back-spelling

Noun

back-spelling

  1. An unetymological, often hypercorrect, spelling of a word created by analogy with other words which (usually through loss of a sound or its phonetic merger with other sounds) have become similar to it.
    • Modern English numb is a back-spelling, because this word never had a /b/ in it. The back-spelling is based on words such as lamb, which had once ended in /b/, but where this sound was lost and the letter b became silent.

Questions about backspelling

What is backspelling the alternative form of?
Backspelling is the alternative form of back-spelling.

Words near backspelling in the dictionary

  1. backspangs
  2. backspatter
  3. backspattered
  4. backspattering
  5. backspatters
  6. backspelling
  7. backspike
  8. backspikes
  9. backspin
  10. backspinner
  11. backspinners

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: backspelling (page history and authors); back-spelling (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:

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