Backward and Forward

Opposite meaning words

Backward adjective - Directed, turned, or done toward the back.

Usage example: a backward turn on ice skates is hard to learn because you can't see where you're going

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Forward is an antonym for backward in topics: reverse, shy, bashful, toward the rear, slow in growth.

Forward adjective - Being far along in development.

Usage example: the local citizenry's attitude toward racial equality was very forward for its time

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Backward is an antonym for forward in topics: presumptuous, first, time, brash, advancing.

The specific mechanism for time travel in CT usually only allows you to travel backward or forward by very specific amounts of time.

Source: Plotline Death
Going up- or downstairs in the impossible stairwell takes Etsugoya forward or backward in time so subtly he does not even realize anything has happened at first.

Source: Literature / The Impossible Stairwell
Naval Ops series: Wave Motion Guns, railguns, and a variety of other energy weapons can only shoot straight forward or backward.

Source: Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon

Cite this Source

Forward and Backward. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 16, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/backward/forward

Backward & Forward. N.p., 2016. Web. 16 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/backward/forward>.

Forward or Backward. 2016. Accessed August 16, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/backward/forward.

Google Ngram Viewer shows how "backward" and "forward" have occurred on timeline