What does "backstory" mean?

The previous experiences and life of a person, specifically (narratology, especially in film, television) a character in a dramatic work.

What is a synonym for "backstory"?

Common synonyms include: back history, background story, cover story.

Pronounced //ˈbækˌstɔːɹi//.

//ˈbækˌstɔːɹi// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The previous experiences and life of a person, specifically (narratology, especially in film, television) a character in a dramatic work.
"What’s the backstory of our new colleague?"
2
A fictitious account of a person's history designed to conceal their actual history and motives.

""What do you think of the main character of my novel?" "She's pretty interesting, but I think you need to flesh out her backstory some more.""

From back- (prefix meaning ‘in, into, or towards the past’) + story.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.