Usually means: Creation of words by reduction.
Definitions Related words Mentions
We found 16 dictionaries that define the word back-formation:

General (14 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: Vocabulary.com
  5. back-formation: Wordnik
  6. back-formation: Wiktionary
  7. back-formation: Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th Ed.
  8. back-formation: Dictionary.com
  9. Back-formation: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
  10. back-formation: Rhymezone
  11. back-formation: Free Dictionary
  12. back-formation: Mnemonic Dictionary
  13. back-formation: Dictionary/thesaurus
  14. back-formation: Merriam-Webster.com

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

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

(Note: See back-formations as well.)

Definitions from Wiktionary (back-formation)

noun:  (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.
noun:  (countable) A word created in this way.

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