outback
Americannoun
adjective
adverb
noun
Etymology
Origin of outback
Explanation
In Australia, the outback is the remote, rural region where far more animals than humans live. If you travel to the outback, you may see kangaroos, dingoes, and emus. Some people think of the outback as a vast, dusty, red desert, but it actually contains many different ecosystems, including savannahs, mountain ranges, and woodlands. Although it makes up the majority of Australia's land mass (about 80 percent), the outback is sparsely populated. Indigenous Australians have lived in this part of the country for at least 50,000 years. Outback was coined in the late 19th century from the phrase "out in the back country."
Vocabulary lists containing outback
Australia and New Zealand - Introductory
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Australia and New Zealand - Middle School and High School
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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.
As I step out into this next phase of life, I do sometimes find myself missing the chaos of Hanoi or the wide-open spaces of the Australian outback.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 22, 2026
Police say they launched the largest search in the history of South Australia when four-year-old Gus Lamont was reported missing in late September from his family's Oak Park Station in the outback north of Adelaide.
From Barron's • Feb. 7, 2026
Police say a suspect has been identified over the disappearance of a four-year-old boy who went missing in the South Australian outback.
From BBC • Feb. 4, 2026
The day before, the state of New South Wales had reported its hottest day in over a century, a high of 44.8C in the outback town of Bourke.
From BBC • Nov. 26, 2025
On the third anniversary of the Shoemaker-Levy impact, he and his wife were in the Australian outback, where they went every year to search for impact sites.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
Definitions 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.
