Word.ws English Dictionary

defensive back

defensive back noun: collective term for the defensive players who are in position farthest from the ball at the start of a play and whose principal responsibility is to defend against passes. Includes cornerbacks and safeties in both codes, and defensive halfbacks in the Canadian game.

Noun

defensive back (plural defensive backs)

  1. (Canadian) Collective term for the defensive players who are in position farthest from the ball at the start of a play and whose principal responsibility is to defend against passes. Includes cornerbacks and safeties in both codes, and defensive halfbacks in the Canadian game.

Forms of defensive back

pluraldefensive backs

Questions about defensive back

What does defensive back mean?
Defensive back means collective term for the defensive players who are in position farthest from the ball at the start of a play and whose principal responsibility is to defend against passes. Includes cornerbacks and safeties in both codes, and defensive halfbacks in the Canadian game.
What part of speech is defensive back?
Defensive back is a noun.
What is the plural of defensive back?
The plural of defensive back is defensive backs.

Words near defensive back in the dictionary

  1. defensibly
  2. defensin
  3. defensing
  4. defensins
  5. defensive
  6. defensive back
  7. defensive backs
  8. defensive copies
  9. defensive copy
  10. defensive copying
  11. defensive design

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: defensive back (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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