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
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of backwater
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
In the hockey world, the borough would go from backwater to mecca.
—Justin Davidson, Curbed, 10 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for backwater
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
In the hockey world, the borough would go from backwater to mecca.
—Justin Davidson, Curbed, 10 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for backwater
Recent Examples of Synonyms for backwater
Noun
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Days quickly merge into one another, interspersed with dips in the large pool—or aperitivo beside it; bike rides through the adjacent countryside; road trips to the beach; visits to nearby villages, including Margarites, which is famous for its ceramic making.—
Katie Silcox,
Vogue,
28 May 2026
-
Hafsia Herzi plays Nora, a successful government worker living in a beautiful house in a marshy stretch of French countryside, with a dependable husband, an annoying daughter, and Monica Bellucci for a neighbor.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
27 May 2026
Noun
-
Quantum technology is widely viewed as one of the next major frontiers in computing.—
Kaif Shaikh,
Interesting Engineering,
31 May 2026
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Tapping into international Ferro’s next frontier is one that calls back to the beginning of her career.—
Lillian Rizzo,
CNBC,
31 May 2026
Noun
-
Walls, trees and bushes marked the borders.—
Thomas Adam,
The Conversation,
29 May 2026
-
Yellowjackets build a paper nest in a cavity or underground, often inhabiting a rodent hole or hiding the nest under a bush or a brush pile.—
Brandee Gruener,
Southern Living,
29 May 2026
Noun
-
Trump has effectively imposed a fuel blockade on the island by threatening tariffs on countries supplying it with fuel, igniting seemingly endless power outages and delivering new blows to the island's already ailing economy.—
Phil Stewart,
USA Today,
30 May 2026
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The journey to this point began almost a century ago and hundreds of miles away in China, when Mao Zedong reshaped Marxist–Leninist theory to fit the pre-industrial conditions of his country.—
Dhruv Tikekar,
CNN Money,
30 May 2026
Noun
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The film eliminated even a gesture toward a plot while showing solitary nonprofessional and real-life ranch-hand Misael Saavedra chopping and hauling logs in the Argentinian hinterlands (in actuality, Alonso’s family’s ranch).—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
25 May 2026
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Together, all of those developments deepened class and regional inequalities, as capital flowed away from workers in the industrial hinterland toward financial centers like New York.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
15 May 2026
Noun
-
Once the work is complete, the capsule reenters the atmosphere at some 18,000 miles per hour, parachuting down with a bump in the Australian outback.—
Ramin Skibba,
Scientific American,
15 May 2026
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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
Cite this Entry
“Backwater.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/backwater. Accessed 2 Jun. 2026.
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