Word.ws English Dictionary

open-back

open-back adjective: of headphones: only partially covering the ear, so that there is airflow to the wearer's ears.

Adjective

open-back (comparative more open-back, superlative most open-back)

  1. Of headphones: only partially covering the ear, so that there is airflow to the wearer's ears.
    • For listening in quiet, isolated environments like your home, "open-back" earphones, usually over- or on-ear, are your best bet.2015 July 2, Kate Murphy, “The Difference Between Listening Up and Tuning Out”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 28 Jun 2022
    • If you ask any audiophile what headphone type they prefer to use for an extended listening session, I can almost guarantee they will say that open-back headphones are the better choice. Open-back headphones enable air to circulate around the ears and allow heat and sound to escape so that music...2020 September 24, Mark Sparrow, “Sennheiser Makes Open-Back Headphones More Affordable With The Brand New HD 560S”, in Forbes, archived from the original on 01 Feb 2022
    Synonyms:
    open-ear, open-eared
    Antonyms:
    closed-back

Examples of open-back in a sentence

  • If you ask any audiophile what headphone type they prefer to use for an extended listening session, I can almost guarantee they will say that open-back headphones are the better choice.2020 September 24, Mark Sparrow, “Sennheiser Makes Open-Back Headphones More Affordable With The Brand New HD 560S”, in Forbes, archived...
  • Sometimes, they provide warmer, more life-like sound quality, and the open-back design could be a safer way to play VR for you.2022 August 17, Cameron Faulkner, “Logitech's Chorus open-back headphones slide onto the Quest 2”, in The Verge, archived from the original...

Synonyms of open-back

Antonyms

Forms of open-back

comparativemore open-back
superlativemost open-back

Questions about open-back

What does open-back mean?
Open-back means of headphones: only partially covering the ear, so that there is airflow to the wearer's ears.
How do you use open-back in a sentence?
If you ask any audiophile what headphone type they prefer to use for an extended listening session, I can almost guarantee they will say that open-back headphones are the better choice.
What part of speech is open-back?
Open-back is an adjective.

Words near open-back in the dictionary

  1. open-aired
  2. open-and-shut
  3. open-armed
  4. open-arse
  5. open-arses
  6. open-back
  7. open-book
  8. open-book contract
  9. open-book contracts
  10. open-breasted
  11. open-carried

Source and license

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