Usually means: Creating new words by subtraction.
Definitions Related words Mentions
We found 20 dictionaries that define the word back formation:

General (18 matching dictionaries)
  1. back-formation: Merriam-Webster.com
  2. back-formation: Oxford Learner's Dictionaries
  3. back-formation: American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
  4. back formation: Collins English Dictionary
  5. back-formation: Vocabulary.com
  6. back-formation: Wordnik
  7. back-formation, back formation: Wiktionary
  8. back-formation: Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th Ed.
  9. back formation: The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus
  10. back formation: Infoplease Dictionary
  11. back-formation, back formation: Dictionary.com
  12. Back-formation, Back formation: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
  13. back-formation: Rhymezone
  14. back-formation: Free Dictionary
  15. back-formation: Mnemonic Dictionary
  16. back-formation, back formation: Dictionary/thesaurus

Art (1 matching dictionary)
  1. Back-formation: Lexicon of Linguistics

Miscellaneous (1 matching dictionary)
  1. back-formation: Wordcraft Dictionary

Definitions from Wiktionary (back formation)

noun:  Alternative spelling of back-formation. [(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 suffix) from burglar.]

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