Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use backward in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, adverb, noun

Backward means situated toward or at the rear of something. Example: “The silt collects in the backward part of the tank.”

Examples of backward by meaning

adjectiveSituated toward or at the rear of something.

  • The silt collects in the backward part of the tank.

adjectiveActing or moving in the direction opposite to that in which someone or something is facing.

  • a backward tilt of the head

adjectiveActing or moving in the direction opposite to the usual direction of movement.

  • The occasional apparent backward movement of planets is evidence that they revolve around the sun.
  • Engage the lock to prevent backward rotation of the wheel.

adjectiveActing or moving oppositely to the desired direction of progress.

  • This is a backward step for the country.

adjectiveReversed in order or sequence.

  • This backward writing is hard to read.

adjectiveRetarded in development; not as advanced as would be expected.

  • The child is backward in his school work.
  • The fact that a child is backward in talking is no sign of defective intelligence, nor does it prove that it will be a slow pupil.1910, Leonard Keene Hirshberg, What You Ought to Know about Your Baby, page 19
  • Rickety children are backward in teething, and when the teeth do appear, they decay very rapidly.1925, Louis Fischer, The Health-care of the Baby: A Handbook for Mothers and Nurses, page 170

adjectiveOf a culture, country, practice etc., undeveloped or unsophisticated.

  • They were a backward people without any writing.
  • The leader of the victorious faction, one Aden Hashi 'Ayro, is said to be a veteran of Afghanistan; he knows well what a small sanctuary in a backward corner of the globe can mean for al Qaeda.2006, Tom Donnelly, “Back to Mogadishu?”, in Armed Forces Journal, archived from the original on 08 Jan 2009

adjectiveSlow to apprehend; having difficulties in learning.

  • a backward child

More sentences with backward

  • Have you gentlemen come to see the lady who fell backwards off a bus?From the entry you
  • I took my leave of the gentleman without a backward glance.From the entry leave
  • Jessica was so careless that she put her shorts on backwards.From the entry careless
  • The new editor is backward compatible with all versions later than 1.17.From the entry backward compatible
  • They bent over backwards to make sure everything was just right for the visit.From the entry bend over backwards
  • Palindromic prime numbers are those which read the same backwards as forwards.From the entry palindromic
  • If you make the animal angry, walk slowly backwards and avoid making eye contact.From the entry eye contact
  • The enactment of this law will be a great step backward for our country.From the entry enactment
  • The telescoping effect is divided into backward telescoping and forward telescoping.From the entry telescoping
  • The seats in the carriage faced backwards.From the entry face
  • Adding 64-bit support broke backward compatibility with earlier versions.From the entry break
  • The front of the fire engine has backward writing, that can be read in a mirror, as well as forward writing.From the entry forward
  • Don't wear your baseball cap backward; turn it forward.From the entry forward
  • Moving a pawn backward is an illegal move in chess.From the entry illegal
  • No one noticed that he had moved imperceptibly backwards.From the entry imperceptibly
  • The rearmost member of the strike team walked backward to guard them from a surprise attack from behind.From the entry rearmost
  • Our organization sets its own standards in various ways, but on the topic of backward compatibility of these cartridges, we are in the role of ruletaker rather than rulemaker.From the entry ruletaker
  • Efilism, a form of antinatalism also linked to promortalism, gets its name by spelling “life” backwards.2025 May 21, Manisha Krishnan, “IVF Clinic Bombing Suspect Was Linked to ‘Anti-Life’ Ideology. Experts Fear Its Growing Influence”, in…. From the entry antinatalism
  • The widespread use of subtitles felt, to me, like a lurch backward toward the silent-film era.2023 June 6, Devin Gordon, “Why Is Everyone Watching TV With the Subtitles On?”, in The Atlantic, retrieved 09 Jun 2023. From the entry doctrinaire
  • Stepping backward, I looked into the face of Bernard—a definite gigglemug.2023, SF Benson, chapter 6, in Death and Ruin: All Things Dark and Deadly, Book 4. From the entry gigglemug
  • They were all professional to their fingertips, knew each other very well, and knew their disciplines backwards.2021 January 27, “Open Access: How to run a railway”, in RAIL, issue 923, page 38. From the entry fingertip
  • It has long been known that "backward translation" works very well in algesiometry.2020, Professor John N. Wood, The Oxford Handbook of the Neurobiology of Pain, page 45. From the entry algesiometry
  • Prepare the loin as for French chops and arrange like a crown, rolling the loin backward.2019, Maria Willett Howard, Lowney's Cook Book. From the entry French chop
  • He had looked backward longer than he realized and neatly dead-centered the lone but firm sapling.2016, Thomas W. Kavanagh, The Life of Ten Bears: Comanche Historical Narratives. From the entry dead-center
  • This hyperreflexive “turning backward” toward the self is incompatible with more spontaneous, world-directed forms of activity.2013, KWM Fulford, Martin Davies, Richard Gipps, The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry, →ISBN, page v. From the entry hyperreflexive
  • When I got there, Wall St. was indeed backward, mainframed and undistributed.2012, Emanuel Derman, My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance. From the entry undistributed
  • It might be possible, for example, to work backwards from the known realia of Visigothic Spain.2011, Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms, Penguin, published 2012, page 28. From the entry realia
  • The animal fell backward, its talons in a deathlock on the sill of the empty window frame.2010, S.M. Stirling, The Sky People, →ISBN. From the entry deathlock

Meaning of backward

  1. adjective Situated toward or at the rear of something.
  2. adjective Acting or moving in the direction opposite to that in which someone or something is facing.
  3. adjective Acting or moving in the direction opposite to the usual direction of movement.

Full definition of backward

Questions about backward in a sentence

How do you use backward in a sentence?
Backward is used as an adjective, adverb and noun. For example: “The silt collects in the backward part of the tank.”
What is a short sentence with backward?
“a backward child”
What does backward mean?
Backward means situated toward or at the rear of something.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: backward (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use backward in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/backward. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.