backward compatible

adjective

variants: or less commonly backwards compatible

Definition of backward compatible

: compatible with older equipment or previous versions of software Dolby Digital is backward compatible and supports earlier versions of Dolby such as Pro Logic. — Consumer Reports

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Examples of backward compatible in a Sentence

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Spencer also said the next-gen console will be backward compatible with all previous generations of Xbox. — Channing King, Indianapolis Star, "From 'Cyberpunk 2077' to 'Final Fantasy VII,' here are the big video games of E3 2019," 13 June 2019 Most of the Xbox 360 games are backward compatible, and some are even enhanced for the latest Xbox One X hardware. — Tom Warren, The Verge, "Microsoft’s Xbox Black Friday deals include up to 75 percent off 500 games," 15 Nov. 2018 Naturally, both of these consoles will fully support existing backward compatible Xbox and Xbox 360 games, and of course Xbox One titles. — Tom Warren, The Verge, "Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox is codenamed Anaconda," 18 Dec. 2018 With individual power switches for port-by-port control and transfer speeds up to 5Gbps per port, these hubs all feature USB 3.0 ports that are backward compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1. — Alexandria Haslam, PCWorld, "Amazon's awesome Sabrent sale will add up to 10 USB ports to your PC or Mac for cheap," 25 Sep. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'backward compatible.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Dictionary Entries near backward compatible

backward compatible

backward-looking

backward masking

Statistics for backward compatible

Last Updated

24 Jun 2019

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Time Traveler for backward compatible

The first known use of backward compatible was in 1975

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