Word.ws English Dictionary

backwood

US/ˈbækˌwʊd/

backwood adjective: native to or located in a remote rural location.

Adjective

backwood (not comparable)

  1. Native to or located in a remote rural location.
    • The house itself, although far more spacious and comfortable than the majority of backwood farmhouses, was built in the usual fashion, of solid logs, and was evidently designed to resist attack.1885, G. A. Henty, True to the Old Flag, chapter 1 — A Frontier Farm
    • Despite the court victory, Archer resigned as deputy chairman and rehabilitated himself by working as a party stalwart in backwood constituencies.2000 April 17, Helen Gibson, “Another Archer Mystery”, in Time
  2. Rustic, unsophisticated, countrified.
    • Here, after supper, most of the company stretched themselves in backwood style, before the fire; but Washington was shown into a bedroom.1859, Washington Irving, chapter 4, in Life of George Washington
    • "That's what you mean, dandy boy — for you're only a dandy boy, you know, and they don't get married to backwood Southern girls."1889, Bret Harte, chapter 10, in Cressy

Origin of backwood

From back + wood; compare backwater.

Questions about backwood

What does backwood mean?
Backwood means native to or located in a remote rural location.
What part of speech is backwood?
Backwood is an adjective.
How do you pronounce backwood?
Backwood is pronounced /ˈbækˌwʊd/ (US).

Words near backwood in the dictionary

  1. backwinds
  2. backwing
  3. backwinged
  4. backwinging
  5. backwings
  6. backwood
  7. backwoods
  8. backwoodser
  9. backwoodsers
  10. backwoodsiness
  11. backwoodsman

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: backwood (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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