Word.ws English Dictionary

behind

Syllables: be·hind/beˈhəɪn//bɪˈhaɪnd/

behind preposition: at or to the back or far side of.

Preposition

behind

  1. At or to the back or far side of.
    • The children were hiding behind the wall.
    • Behind the garage needs clearing asap.
    Synonyms:
    in back of, to the rear of, a-back
    Antonyms:
    in front of
    1. (figuratively) Concealed by (something serving as a facade or disguise).
      • Behind the smile was a cruel intention.
    2. (figuratively) In the past, from the viewpoint of.
      • All my problems are behind me.
  2. After in physical progress or distance.
    • Smith finished the race a lap behind the others.
    • About the center, and a good way behind the rest, Silver and I followed — I tethered by my rope[…].1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island
    Antonyms:
    ahead of
  3. After in developmental progress, score, grade, etc.; inferior to.
    • I'm ranked sixth in the French class, behind five other pupils.
    • In the cricket match, England are 120 runs behind India.
    Antonyms:
    ahead of
  4. After in time.
    • London is nine hours behind Tokyo.
    Antonyms:
    ahead of
  5. Responsible for, being the creator or controller of.
    • Who is behind these terrorist attacks?
    • Mr Jones was the man behind the redevelopment plan.
  6. Underlying, being the reason for or explanation of.
    • What is behind this unexpected decision?
  7. In support of.
    • The republicans are fully behind their candidate.
  8. (US, informal, sometimes regarded as nonstandard) Following, subsequent to; as a result or consequence of; because of.
    • He was like, 'Fuck the police! Fuck you! You know who I am, you gonna quit playing with me, bitch.' I'm like let's go. 'Cause I wasn't trying to go to jail behind that shit.2012, DeShawn Dorsey, Longsuffering Through Emotional Wounds, page 40

Adverb

behind (comparative more behind or (rare or nonstandard) behinder, superlative most behind or (rare or nonstandard) behindest)

  1. At or in the rear or back part of something.
    • The water flows out through the pipe, and the sediment collects behind.
  2. In a rearward direction.
    • We ran and ran, without once looking behind.
  3. So as to come after someone or something in position, distance, advancement, ranking, time, etc.
    • The slower runners were left a long way behind.
    • In the cricket match, England finished a long way behind.
  4. So as to be still in place after someone or something has departed or ceased to exist.
    • I couldn't be bothered to carry the ironing board, so I left it behind.
    • He stayed behind after the war.
  5. Backward in time or order of succession; past.
    • […] forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Philippians 3:13
  6. Behind the scenes in a theatre; backstage.
    • ‘After the performance was over I went behind, and spoke to her.’1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Vintage, published 2007, page 68
  7. (archaic) Not yet brought forward, produced, or exhibited to view; out of sight; remaining.
    • We cannot be sure that there is no evidence behind.1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 4, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC, book I, page 16

Adjective

behind (comparative more behind or (rare or nonstandard) behinder, superlative most behind or (rare or nonstandard) behindest)

  1. Not advanced to the required or expected degree; overdue or in arrears.
    • I'm very behind in my schedule.
    • My employer is two paychecks behind on paying my salary.
  2. Slow.
    • My watch is behind by four minutes.
    Antonyms:
    ahead, fast

Noun

behind (plural behinds)

  1. The rear, back-end.
    • This part fits under the behind of the vehicle.
    • She sneaked up on me from behind.
  2. (informal) The buttocks, bottom, butt.
    • I was stung on the behind by a wasp.
    • There was a girl in the mattress factory with me during the war, girl about thirty. A big one, kind of a fat face, big behind to her, big titties, kind of a girl should be human and soft with a man.1949 May, Albert Maltz, chapter VII, in The Journey of Simon McKeever, 1st edition (Fiction), Boston: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 101
  3. (euphemistic) Synonym of ass (“synecdochic: a person or their body”).
    • Get your lazy behind out of bed!
    Synonyms:
    ass
  4. (Australian rules football) A one-point score.
    • A roar from ten thousand throats go up,
      For we've kicked another behind.1880, “The Opening Ball”, in G. Lehmann, editor, Comic Australian Verse, 1975, quoted in G. A. Wilkes, A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms, second edition, Sydney University Press, published...
  5. (slang) The catcher.
  6. In the Eton College field game, any of a group of players consisting of two "shorts" (who try to kick the ball over the bully) and a "long" (who defends the goal).

behind meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Telugu and Punjabi

behind in Hindi

at the back of
के पीछे ke pīche
to the back of
के पीछे ke pīche
at the back part; in the rear
पीछे pīche
rear, back-end
पीछा pīchā

behind in Urdu

at the back of
کے پیچھے ke pīche
to the back of
کے پیچھے ke pīche
at the back part; in the rear
پیچھے pīche
rear, back-end
پیچھا pīchā

behind in Telugu

at the back of
వెనక venaka
to the back of
వెనక్కి venakki

behind in Punjabi

at the back of
پِچھّے pnb, ਪਿੱਛੇ picchē
More languagesFewer languages
behind in Odia
ପଛରେ
behind in Pashto
له ... نه ورستو lë ... na wrostô, د ... د ورستو dë ... dë wrostô, تر شا ter šâ
behind in Tagalog
sa likod, nasa likod
behind in Arabic
وَرَاءَ warāʔa, خَلْفَ ḵalfa, وَرَاء warāʔ
behind in Malay
di belakang, ke belakang, sesudah
behind in Persian
پشت pošt
behind in Thai
ข้างหลัง kâang lăng
behind in Vietnamese
sau
behind in Myanmar
နောက် nauk

Examples of behind in a sentence

  • The sun went behind the clouds.
  • I hide behind you in hide and seek.
  • The worst thing about autumn is that winter follows behind.
  • He left behind a legacy of death and sorrow.
  • The island was inundated by the sea, leaving not a trace behind.
  • Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe.2013 July 19, Timothy Garton Ash, “Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 18:

All 40 example sentences with behind

Synonyms of behind

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of behind

Forms of behind

Preposition
alternative formbehine
alternative form (dialectal)ahind
Adverb
comparativemore behind
superlativemost behind
comparative (nonstandard, rare)behinder
superlative (nonstandard, rare)behindest
Adjective
comparativemore behind
superlativemost behind
comparative (nonstandard, rare)behinder
superlative (nonstandard, rare)behindest
Noun
pluralbehinds

Origin of behind

From Middle English behinde, behinden, from Old English behindan (“on the back side of, behind”), from Proto-West Germanic *bihindan, *bihindini (“on the back side of, in the rear of, behind”), from Proto-West Germanic *bi- + *hindō (“the hind side, back part”), equivalent to be- + hind. Compare Old Saxon bihindan (“behind”, adverb), Middle High German behinter (“behind; back”).

Words formed from behind

Phrases with behind

80 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with behind

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about behind

What does behind mean?
Behind means at or to the back or far side of.
What is behind in Hindi?
Behind in Hindi is के पीछे (ke pīche), पीछे (pīche), पीछा (pīchā). See Behind meaning in Hindi.
How do you use behind in a sentence?
The sun went behind the clouds.
What part of speech is behind?
Behind can be a preposition, an adverb, an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce behind?
Behind is pronounced /bɪˈhaɪnd/ (UK).

Words near behind in the dictionary

  1. behierite
  2. behight
  3. behighted
  4. behighting
  5. behights
  6. behind
  7. behind bars
  8. behind center
  9. behind closed doors
  10. behind every great man is a great woman
  11. behind every great man there stands a woman

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: behind (page history and authors); behind (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-behind.ogg, en-us-behind.ogg.

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