backward
adverb
toward the back or rear.
backwardness
-
a word derived from
backward.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“With the oil revenues, we could meet our entire budget and combat poverty, disease, and backwardness among our people,” Mossadegh said in a June 21, 1951, speech.
From Barron's ● Mar. 5, 2026
But since the end of the Civil War, its economy has languished, becoming a synonym for stagnation and backwardness.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 29, 2025
The series has been constructed, from its camera moves to its soundtrack, as a kind of post-Cold War Cold War thriller, set in and around Moscow, whose backwardness makes it feel less than modern.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2023
After the Spanish conquest of the Incan Empire in 1532, Quechua came to be seen as a sign of backwardness or a source of suspicion by the new ruling class.
From New York Times ● May 31, 2022
I hadn't allowed the idea to take concrete form in my mind, but for a moment I had almost allowed an old, southern backwardness which I had thought dead to wreck my career.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
