fallback
Americannoun
-
fallbacks
plural
-
an act or instance of falling back.
-
something or someone to turn or return to, especially for help or as an alternative.
His teaching experience would be a fallback if the business failed.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fallback
1750–60, noun, adj. use of verb phrase fall back
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.
See Examples For:
Treating that as a casual fallback plan, when they could take a reverse mortgage if need be, seems naive at best, and callous at worst.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
The more concentrated flow helps maintain a similar peak fallback rate, and therefore roughly the same predicted flare brightness.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 23, 2026
Why this fallback to current convention, when the rest of the experience is about radical reinvention?
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026
However, Tencent’s close partnership with DeepSeek offers an important fallback option if Hunyuan fails to catch up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
And if that career didn’t work out, I could use my fallback career as an astronaut.
From "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher
By now, though, many have exhausted those fallbacks and fallen into debt.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 5, 2023
Software companies know full well that almost no one reads these things, so they know they can safely stuff all the legal fallbacks they wish into their texts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2020
He added that “even with the fallbacks, we are not sure we’ll have enough to get to Sunday of this week.”
From Fox News ● Apr. 20, 2020
If Smoak bombs out, well, they would have Montero and Jaso as fallbacks at first.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 27, 2012
The fallbacks are a pair of retread Ortizes, Ramon and Russ.
From New York Times ● Apr. 14, 2010
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
