as in countryside
usually backlands plural
a rural region that forms the edge of the settled or developed part of a country
they purposely vacationed in the backlands to get away from people
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Recent Examples of backland
But more migrants, moving farther into remote backlands to elude the Border Patrol, have died in scorching desert heat, a shameful indicator that enforcement is having an effect in many places.
—
Julia Preston, Foreign Affairs, 25 Oct. 2024
His protagonist, living in direst poverty in Brazil’s arid backlands, decides to migrate to the wealthier coast.
—Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 1 Dec. 2019
Born in the arid backlands of Brazil’s north-east, Mr Gilberto arrived in Rio de Janeiro in 1950 as a singer in one of the then-fashionable vocal ensembles.
—The Economist, 11 July 2019
Tucked in the emerald backlands of Fayetteville, Georgia, inside a cavernous soundstage at Pinewood Studios, Mara Brock-Akil is in full field marshall mode.
—Jason Parham, WIRED, 19 June 2018
Patrícia Santos da Silva, 24, and her family live in the city of Santana do Ipanema, in the western backlands of Alagoas.
—Sandee Lamotte, CNN, 1 Nov. 2017
Some escaped and formed clandestine communities in the backlands of the rainforest, independent villages known as quilombos.
—Smithsonian, 21 Sep. 2017
Julia Preston, Foreign Affairs, 25 Oct. 2024
His protagonist, living in direst poverty in Brazil’s arid backlands, decides to migrate to the wealthier coast.
—Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 1 Dec. 2019
Born in the arid backlands of Brazil’s north-east, Mr Gilberto arrived in Rio de Janeiro in 1950 as a singer in one of the then-fashionable vocal ensembles.
—The Economist, 11 July 2019
Tucked in the emerald backlands of Fayetteville, Georgia, inside a cavernous soundstage at Pinewood Studios, Mara Brock-Akil is in full field marshall mode.
—Jason Parham, WIRED, 19 June 2018
Patrícia Santos da Silva, 24, and her family live in the city of Santana do Ipanema, in the western backlands of Alagoas.
—Sandee Lamotte, CNN, 1 Nov. 2017
Some escaped and formed clandestine communities in the backlands of the rainforest, independent villages known as quilombos.
—Smithsonian, 21 Sep. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for backland
Noun
-
Hungary lives in the countryside—only eight cities have a population exceeding a hundred thousand people—and that is where Magyar concentrated his attention.—
Kapil Komireddi,
New Yorker,
10 Apr. 2026
-
Now legions of bright-eyed radical youths were exiled to the countryside to learn from the peasants.—
Michael Sheridan,
Vanity Fair,
8 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
The 13th hole, titled Azalea, is home to about 1,600 bushes that reach their peak brilliance during tournament week.—
LP O'Brien,
AJC.com,
5 Apr. 2026
-
The story began on March 24, when a hiker slipped and fell from a 180-foot waterfall in wild New Zealand bush.—
Samantha Agate,
Miami Herald,
3 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Moreover, as soon as Christianity began to spread outside his native land, Christian converts faced new situations in unexpected contexts, completely different from those of their founder, an itinerant Jewish preacher in the sparsely populated hinterlands of rural Galilee.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
26 Mar. 2026
-
Scattered across the continent were hundreds of towns populated by a few hundred people, and each of these towns had an economic hinterland of perhaps 50 to 100 square miles, with the bulk of all agricultural and household production produced and remaining in that area.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
25 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Gold transformed Victoria from a pastoral backwater into the most celebrated colony of the empire.—
Britannica Editors,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
19 Mar. 2026
-
At that time, in the 1920s, France was really a backwater in theoretical physics.—
Tim Folger,
Scientific American,
16 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
That decade started with the 1973 oil embargo by Arab countries who were members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, and ended with the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which many attribute to helping end Jimmy Carter's presidency.—
Phillip M. Bailey,
USA Today,
4 Apr. 2026
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And both reckon with the extent to which historical ignorance and the calculated distortion of the past threaten the foundation on which our country was built.—
Francine Prose,
The New York Review of Books,
4 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Both Benna and Einhorn were used to André pitching outrageous concepts in conversation over the years, whether in regard to a new client or a road trip involving some remote outback and hallucinogens.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
7 Mar. 2026
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Black lives don’t matter in Warwick Thornton’s fiercely original outback Western Wolfram, a surprisingly emotional genre piece that simmers with menace and doesn’t let up until the bloody finale.—
Damon Wise,
Deadline,
17 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
More specifically, the study found that by the third quarter of 2024, frontier AI models were already hitting a 50% success rate on tasks that take humans about a full workday to complete.—
Nick Lichtenberg,
Fortune,
5 Apr. 2026
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But the events of late 1957 shattered that perception and focused the attention of American politicians and military officials more sharply on the final frontier.—
Mike Wall,
Space.com,
4 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Backland.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/backland. Accessed 11 Apr. 2026.
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