as in countryside
a rural region that forms the edge of the settled or developed part of a country
a distant backwater that didn't even have electricity at that time
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of backwater
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
But Dublin was a European backwater then.
—Jody Mamone, Hartford Courant, 16 Mar. 2026
Saturated in the heatwave colors of Australia’s scorching Red Center, with its searing blue skies and bright orange sands, Wolfram makes the grim, lawless backwater of Wake in Fright seem positively cosmopolitan by comparison.
—Damon Wise, Deadline, 17 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for backwater
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
But Dublin was a European backwater then.
—Jody Mamone, Hartford Courant, 16 Mar. 2026
Saturated in the heatwave colors of Australia’s scorching Red Center, with its searing blue skies and bright orange sands, Wolfram makes the grim, lawless backwater of Wake in Fright seem positively cosmopolitan by comparison.
—Damon Wise, Deadline, 17 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for backwater
Recent Examples of Synonyms for backwater
Noun
-
Learn how to make real Italian food, by a real Italian chef, in the Italian countryside.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
11 June 2026
-
For her part, Gianina is just trying to stow away enough earnings to support her daughter, Maria (Sofia Dragoman), who lives with her grandmother (Liliana Ghita) in a grimly anonymous village in the countryside, and to save for an anticipated Christmas reunion in Romania.—
Christopher Vourlias,
Variety,
11 June 2026
Noun
-
Settlers streamed into the American frontier.—
Michael Luo,
New Yorker,
14 June 2026
-
Never before has the US government taken such sweeping measures to rein in foreign access to frontier AI models developed by an American company.—
Bloomberg,
Chicago Tribune,
13 June 2026
Noun
-
Whether tomatoes are grown on a vine or bush also matters.—
Cori Sears,
The Spruce,
11 June 2026
-
West then runs down the alley and can be seen leaving the gun in bushes at 6770 Collins Avenue.—
Milena Malaver,
Miami Herald,
10 June 2026
Noun
-
More than one-third of Tuvalu’s 11,000 population applied for a climate visa to migrate to Australia, under a deal struck between the two countries two years ago.—
Reuters,
NBC news,
12 Dec. 2025
-
Sarah Morrison, Wilson Central The school's math department head, Morrison teaches Algebra 2, AP Calculus and also coaches cross country.—
Andy Humbles,
Nashville Tennessean,
11 Dec. 2025
Noun
-
If Washington would not acknowledge what was happening in the hinterland, then the hinterland would come to Washington.—
David McWilliams,
Fortune,
16 Nov. 2025
-
The world out there is a kind of hinterland that isn’t well known.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
13 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
The Deb dispute is playing out across different fronts in Los Angeles and Australia, overshadowing the feel-good movie about outback teens attending a debutante ball.—
Jake Kanter,
Deadline,
28 Apr. 2026
-
On Wednesday, April 23, the star, 50, exclusively opened up to PEOPLE about the filming process of her new Netflix action thriller Apex, which is set in the Australian outback, at the movie's NYC premiere.—
Clare Fisher,
PEOPLE,
23 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Backwater.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/backwater. Accessed 17 Jun. 2026.
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