Word.ws English Dictionary

touchback

touchback noun: the result of a play (usually a kickoff or punt) in which the ball passes out the back of the end zone or a team otherwise gains possession of the ball in their own end zone.

Noun

touchback (plural touchbacks)

  1. The result of a play (usually a kickoff or punt) in which the ball passes out the back of the end zone or a team otherwise gains possession of the ball in their own end zone.
    • The ball sailed into the end zone for a touchback and the Eagles had possession on the 20-yard line. https://web.archive.org/web/20060111202354/http://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/gameday/postGameArchive.jsp?id=16746

Forms of touchback

pluraltouchbacks

Origin of touchback

Presumably: touchdown + back

Questions about touchback

What does touchback mean?
Touchback means the result of a play (usually a kickoff or punt) in which the ball passes out the back of the end zone or a team otherwise gains possession of the ball in their own end zone.
What part of speech is touchback?
Touchback is a noun.
What is the plural of touchback?
The plural of touchback is touchbacks.

Words near touchback in the dictionary

  1. touchableness
  2. touchably
  3. Touchard polynomial
  4. Touchard polynomials
  5. touchas
  6. touchback
  7. touchbacks
  8. touchball
  9. touchbox
  10. touchboxes
  11. touchdown

Source and license

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