backwater
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
When I visited Xingguo, it remained an economic backwater.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 7, 2026
Ms. Allen concedes their regionalism but argues that they were wiser for understanding that a “provincial backwater offers as full a panoply of human folly, nobility, tragedy, and absurdity as any great metropolis.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 23, 2026
The exact coordinates of this backwater are a bit hazy, but Storyteller 2 helpfully pinpoints the locale as “a place where being from somewhere is who you are.”
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 22, 2025
Olympics, but Southern California — which did not have a Russian Consulate — was considered a backwater in the Cold War spy game.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 23, 2025
Campbell could not disagree with Europeans’ condescending view of American science as a backwater rich in money and manpower but poor in theoretical understanding.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Vocabulary lists containing backwater
Red Kayak
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This Week In Culture: October 19–25, 2019
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Last Night at the Telegraph Club
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