Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🏚️ An undeveloped place 🌊 A still area
backwater

backwater

16 7.2
A place or situation that does not change over time
  • noun
  • /ˈbækˌwɔːtər/
translation icon : pueblo atrasado
  • The country's transition from repressive backwater to democratic powerhouse was complete.
  • cultural backwater
  • economic backwater
  • backwater town

I shouldn't even be in this backwater state, you swamp people.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • Growing up in this backwater, Naipaul tells us here, his greatest terror was of falling "into nonentity."

    Academic text (1990)

  • Why waste your talent in this backwater where no significant progress is being made?

  • Why waste your talent in this backwater?

    Insane (2010)

  • I was not aware that such technology, however dated, was available in this backwater.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • For in this backwater, some remnant of the old forests of Europe still survived.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Geography supposedly was an isolated intellectual backwater until quite recently.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Yet it remains something of a pedagogical backwater, ignored in many of the most highly ranked departments.

    Academic text (2000)

  • The assembled crowd listened to speeches emphasizing Litchfield's progress from a backwater town to a center of education, enterprise, and trade.

    Academic text (2002)

  • You would never want to live in that backwater town that lacks development and opportunities.

  • The region was once seen as a backwater, but now it has started to thrive and grow.

Synonyms

backwood
vsbackwater
  • US
7 8.4

A remote forest area far from towns and roads

describes a stagnant situation lacking significant development or change
back country
vsbackwater
1 5.7

A remote wild area far from towns and roads

emphasizes stagnation or no progress rather than physical wilderness
backwoods
vsbackwater
  • US
1 7.0

A remote place with few people and many trees

highlights lack of social or economic progress rather than forest remoteness
backland
vsbackwater
7.4

A rural area far from towns and cities with few people

is about places or situations where no progress or development happens
backlands
vsbackwater
  • UK
7.7

Areas far from towns or cities where few people live and life is often hard

focuses on lack of development or progress rather than just remoteness

Antonyms

progress
∞ 2.5

Forward change toward a goal or better state

development
357 2.5

A gradual change that makes something better or more advanced

How Developed

metropolis
175 5.2
city
∞ 1.0
town
∞ 1.0
rural area
68 2.0
backwater
16 7.2
backwoods
  • US
1 7.0

Surface Forms

backwater singular
backwaters plural

Morphology

backwater = back + water (semi-transparent) = back + water

The sense is a metaphorical extension from the literal compound 'backwater' (stagnant or remote water) to mean a place with little development; the link is clear but requires pragmatic inference.

Etymology

Backwater was also used as a picture of places that stay 'behind' like that calm water. That's why a backwater can mean a town or area where little change or progress happens.