back-formation

Fetched 2026-10-26 (cache).

Synonyms: back formation, back-formations

Antonyms: back formation, back-formations

Related words from Datamuse; suggestions, not definitions.

Noun

1. {{senseid|en|Q989162}} {{lb|en|uncountable|linguistics}} The process by which a new word is formed from an older word by interpreting the former as a derivative of the latter, often by removing a [[morpheme]] (real or perceived) from the older word, such as the verb ''[[burgle]]'', formed by removing ''-ar'' (perceived as an [[agent noun|agent-noun]] [[suffix]]) from ''[[burglar]]''.
2. {{senseid|en|word formed}} {{lb|en|countable}} A word created in this way.

Source: Wiktionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wiktionary dump) · cached copy, not a rewrite.