callback

American  

[kawl-bak] / ˈkɔlˌbæk /

Or call-back

noun

1. an act of calling back.

2. a summoning of workers back to work after a layoff.

3. a summoning of an employee back to work after working hours, as for emergency business.

4. a request to a performer who has auditioned for a role, booking, or the like to return for another audition.

5. recall.

6. a return telephone call.

7. an allusion to a joke made earlier in the same comedy act or show.

   The kitten yelling “Quiet!” at the end was a callback to earlier in the episode when the two normally silent brothers shouted it.

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adjective

1. of or relating to a return telephone call.

   Please leave a callback number.

verb phrase

1. to telephone (a person) who has called earlier.

   Our staff will call you back within 24 hours.

2. to summon or bring back; recall.

   He called back the messenger.

   The actor was called back for a second audition.

3. to revoke; retract.

   to call back an accusation.

Etymology

Origin of callback

First recorded in 1925–30; noun use of verb phrase call back

Example Sentences

My knee was aching, likely a callback to surgery at 16 to repair torn ligaments.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 14, 2026

And that works just fine, as “Hag” uses every bit of its runtime to its favor, planting no less than 63 Chekov’s guns throughout the story, each one a more delicious callback than the last.

From Salon • Apr. 5, 2026

Even the wrap is a callback to a pre-public-offering Sweetgreen, which offered wraps when it was a small chain in the Washington, D.C., area.

From Barron's • Feb. 24, 2026

Several family members were killed, but Hind managed to answer a callback from the helpers at the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

From BBC • Jan. 20, 2026

“Jordan! I heard from my friend that you got a callback, too. It’s, like, the big news on Facebook.”

From "Better Nate Than Ever" by Tim Federle