"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."
Source: tatoeba (10888195)
Backstory
//ˈbækˌstɔːɹi//
Synonyms for "backstory" (3 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (1)
Noun(1 words)
Strong matches (1)
Noun(1 words)
Related words (1)
Noun(1 words)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
coordinate
4 entriesderived from
2 entriesrelated to
9 entriesTranslations
35 translations across 21 languages.
Afrikaans
3 entries- agtergrond noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
- agtergrondinligting noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
- agtergrondverhaal noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Arabic
1 entries- خلفية درامية noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Bengali
1 entries- পিছনের গল্প noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Chinese Cantonese
1 entries- 背景故仔 noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Chinese Mandarin
1 entries- 背景故事 noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Finnish
2 entries- peitetarina noun (fictitious account of a person's history designed to conceal their actual history and motives)
- taustatarina noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
French
2 entries- couverture noun (fictitious account of a person's history designed to conceal their actual history and motives)
- toile de fond noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
German
3 entries- Backstory noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
- Hintergrundgeschichte noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
- Vorgeschichte noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Hungarian
2 entries- előtörténet noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
- háttértörténet noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Japanese
3 entries- バックストーリー noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
- 背景 noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
- 裏話 noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Korean
1 entries- 뒷이야기 noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Macedonian
1 entries- предисто́рија noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Malay
1 entries- latar tempat noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Persian
1 entries- پیشینه داستان noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Polish
4 entries- historia noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
- legenda noun (fictitious account of a person's history designed to conceal their actual history and motives)
- przedakcja noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
- realia noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Portuguese
1 entries- história de fundo noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Punjabi
1 entries- ਪਿੱਠ-ਕਹਾਣੀ noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Russian
2 entries- леге́нда noun (fictitious account of a person's history designed to conceal their actual history and motives)
- предысто́рия noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Spanish
1 entries- historia de fondo noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Swedish
2 entries- bakgrundsberättelse noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
- bakgrundshistoria noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Ukrainian
1 entries- передісто́рія noun (previous experiences and life of a person)
Sample sentences
6 total sentences available.
What’s the backstory of our new colleague?
Source: wiktionary
These backstories cast the characters' behavior in a new light: of course Gertrude would promptly marry the man who saved her from abuse; of course Ophelia would be desperate and indiscreet in seeking Hamlet's love.
Source: wiktionary
Inexplicably, and at great risk to the integrity of the movie, the filmmakers have burdened him with a psychological back story pulled out of a folder in some studio filing cabinet. Why does [Willy] Wonka spend his days confecting sweets?
Source: wiktionary
Showing 4 of 6 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.