back to back

American  

adverb

1. (of two similar events) following one immediately after the other; in unbroken sequence; consecutively.

   After losing all day, he picked winners back to back in the last two races.

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adjective

1. adjacent or contiguous but oppositely oriented; having the backs close together or adjoining.

   The seats in the day coach are back to back.

2. Stud Poker. (of a pair) consisting of the hole card and the first upcard.

   He had aces back to back.

back-to-back British  

adjective

1. facing in opposite directions, often with the backs touching

2. (of urban houses) built so that their backs are joined or separated only by a narrow alley

3. informal consecutive

4. commerce

   1. denoting a credit arrangement in which a finance house acts as an intermediary to conceal the identity of the seller from the buyer

   2. denoting a loan from one company to another in a different country using a finance house to provide the loan but not the funding

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noun

1. a house or terrace built in back-to-back style

back to back Idioms  

1. With backs close together or touching, as in In the first and second rows of the bus, the seats were back to back, an unusual arrangement . This term also can be applied to persons who stand facing in opposite directions and with their backs touching. [Mid-1800s]

2. Consecutively, one after another, as in I'm exhausted; I had three meetings back to back . [Mid-1900s]

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Etymology

Origin of back to back

First recorded in 1450–1500

Explanation

Back-to-back things come right after each other. Two back-to-back baseball games are played in a row. Back-to-back has been used to describe houses that are literally back-to-back with no separation. These days, back-to-back events happen consecutively. A baseball player with back-to-back home runs hit two in a row. A President with back-to-back victories won two elections in a row. There's no separation between back-to-back things, like how if your back was pressed against someone else’s back, nothing could fit in between. Sometimes people use the term back-to-back-to-back for things that happen three times in a row.

Example Sentences

Played back to back, the songs made you think of how little agreement we’ve come to over the last quarter-century about who gets to be called an American.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2026

Staff at a business in Swansea have said it was "absolutely nuts" to have American rapper Snoop Dogg perform a full hour private set of "back to back classics" in their canteen.

From BBC • Feb. 24, 2026

They are such quick reads that I couldn’t even tell you which one I’m specifically reading right now, because I will just read them back to back to back.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 19, 2026

One of the demos was on the 2008 issue, but the impact of hearing the two of these back to back is simply stunning.

From Salon • Dec. 9, 2025

When we walked into math today, Mr. Mason handed out a ten-page package, copied back to back, entitled “A Course Review.”

From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali

Related Words

• later