backlog

American  

[bak-lawg, -log] / ˈbækˌlɔg, -ˌlɒg /

noun

• backlogs
  plural

1. a reserve or accumulation, as of stock, work, or business.

   a backlog of business orders.

   Synonyms:

   reservoir, cache, fund, store, stock, supply

2. a large log at the back of a hearth to keep up a fire.

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verb (used with object)

backlogged, backlogging

1. to hold in reserve, as for future handling or repair.

2. to enter and acknowledge (an order) for future shipment.

verb (used without object)

backlogged, backlogging

1. to accumulate in a backlog.

   Orders are starting to backlog faster than we can process them.

backlog British  

/ ˈbækˌlɒɡ /

noun

1. an accumulation of uncompleted work, unsold stock, etc, to be dealt with

2. a large log at the back of a fireplace

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• backlogs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of backlog

First recorded in 1675–85; back ¹ + log ¹

Explanation

When you have extra work to do that keeps accumulating, you have a backlog. Sometimes people stay late at their jobs to take care of a backlog. A backlog of tasks might slow down an ordinary day at an office or store, or require workers to come in on the weekend to catch up. In 1680, a backlog meant "a large log placed at the back of a fireplace," and by the 1880s it came to also mean "something stored for later use." It wasn't until the early 20th century that a backlog most often referred to "extra unfulfilled orders."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

backlog backlogs backlogged backlogging

Its backlog of generator orders from data centers stretches as far out as 2030, Caterpillar said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026

Meanwhile, planned maintenance and upgrades have to be postponed, leading to a maintenance backlog.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

CoreWeave’s rapid sales growth is fueled by a growing backlog, now up to $130 billion from $99 billion at the end of March.

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

Increased demand from AI labs, hyperscalers and enterprises led CoreWeave’s revenue backlog to reach $104 billion at the end of the second quarter, up 246% from a year prior.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026

She also had to sort through the unit’s massive backlog of paperwork.

From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield

Both Super Micro and CoreWeave pointed to swelling backlogs reflecting ongoing customer demand for AI hardware.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026

LightCounting’s reason is that almost every transceiver component is now scarce and customers have started double ordering, which inflates backlogs.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026

Should Anthropic, OpenAI and other big buyers of AI computing power falter, massive contracts would likely be reworked and backlogs would shrink.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026

Chunky deals with big customers are also helping inflate revenue and backlogs, like the more than $100 billion 10-year contract that AWS signed with Anthropic in April.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026

For the huge fireplace, huge lengths of logs, for the backlogs, were cut, which required three persons to roll in place.

From Blazing The Way True Stories, Songs and Sketches of Puget Sound by Emily Inez Denny

This is not normal; immigration court is deeply backlogged and most cases of asylum—one of the most complex forms of U.S. immigration—were being assigned well into 2029 and 2030.

From Slate ● Mar. 27, 2026

The company’s mints, which source silver from local refineries in North America, are backlogged with orders.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 1, 2026

Pending approval by the House and signing by President Donald Trump, a reopened government would pave the way for a flood of backlogged economic data and the resumption of normal airline operations, among other functions.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 11, 2025

Last month, the program served more than 300 children, working with immigration judges at courts in Los Angeles and Orange County to move cases through the backlogged system.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2025

If everyone who came before the court for a competency hearing brought out a bunch of irrelevant witnesses and made long speeches, the court calendar would be backlogged for decades.

From Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow

Interviews documented in the police report suggest that a key cause of the backlogging at the lab is a 2009 US Supreme Court decision known as Melendez-Diaz v.

From Nature ● Oct. 10, 2012

But in two fair-sized cities, Portland, Ore., and New Orleans, district attorneys claim that they have been able to get stiffer sentences without backlogging the court docket by cutting down on plea bargaining.

From Time Magazine Archive

Related Words

• inventory
• stockpile