Word.ws English Dictionary

backworm

backworm noun: synonym of filanders (“a disease of hawks”).

Noun

backworm (countable and uncountable, plural backworms)

  1. (obsolete, uncountable) Synonym of filanders (“a disease of hawks”).
    Synonyms:
    filanders
  2. (countable, obsolete) The thread-like worm found in filanders.
    • The Indian falcon is sick of the backwormAugust 1593, Walter Raleigh, letter
    • The backworm is rarely quite killed[…].1735, The Sportsmen's Dictionary, London: Printed for C. Hitch, at the Red Lion, and C. Davis, both in Pater-Noster-Row; and S. Austen, at the Angel and Bible in St. Paul's Church-Yard

Synonyms of backworm

Forms of backworm

pluralbackworms

Origin of backworm

From back + worm.

Questions about backworm

What does backworm mean?
Backworm means synonym of filanders (“a disease of hawks”).
What part of speech is backworm?
Backworm is a noun.
What is the plural of backworm?
The plural of backworm is backworms.

Words near backworm in the dictionary

  1. backwoodsmen
  2. backwoodsy
  3. backword
  4. backwords
  5. backwork
  6. backworm
  7. backworms
  8. Backworth
  9. backwound
  10. backwrap
  11. backwrapped

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: backworm (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: “backworm.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/backworm. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.