Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A backward virgule ( ).
Wiktionary
- n. The punctuation mark \.
- n. computing, rare Used erroneously in reference to, or in reading out, the ordinary slash, that is, the punctuation mark /.
- v. computing, transitive To escape (a metacharacter) by prepending a backslash that serves as an escape character, thereby forming an escape sequence.
Etymologies
- back + slash, because it is sloped back against the direction of writing, in contrast to the common slash / ("slash, solidus, oblique, forward slash"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Obviously techniques like this will cause a backslash from the users.”
“Each of the terms beginning with a backslash is a LaTeX command.”
“A backslash is a good character, except it must be escaped with a backslash, and makes the sed script obscure.”
“As in curly-brace languages, the backslash is the escape indicator.”
“A backslash (\) followed by any special character matches the literal character itself; that is, the backslash escapes the special character.”
“Waiting for my 'backslash' comment to show up from several hours ago, Greedy.”
Henry Blodget: Counting on a Quick Economic Recovery? Read This First
“Sooner or later you will meet a person who types out the words "backslash" or forgets to plug in the power cord.”
“Actually, LFP, I was thinking “backslash-A”, but whatever ….”
Matthew Yglesias » Washington Post Editorial Writers Should Read Their Paper’s Opinion Section
“January 2005 (8) 28: Google Video Search (0) 22: Tip: Using a backslash in CSS hacks and workarounds (2) 18: Want to podcast?”
“September 22, 2009 at 10: 42 AM this movie is trash dot org backslash lame!”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘backslash’.
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back phrases/hyphens/compounds
backache to backyard
back-ache, back-aching, back-acter, back-acting, back-answer, back-bar, back-basket, back beat, back-bias, back-blast, back-blowing, back-boiler and 342 more...
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Marks
names of punctuation marks, accent marks, and other graphic signs and graphical characters used in printed, written, or digital text.
comma, period, parenthesis, apostrophe, colon, semicolon, slash, stroke, brackets, dash, em dash, en dash and 71 more...
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[Open] Frequently confused and misused
Words that are often used to mean something other than what they mean to lexicographers.
apprehensible, immanent, eminent, seamen, venal, venial, brassiere, brassier, brasserie, brazier, brasier, elegy and 38 more...
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back-
of the back; behind; prior
backache, backfield, backdate, backlash, backslash, backward, background
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Front and Back
backchat, backbone, backpack, backhoe, backfire, backhanded, breakfront, beachfront, drawback, effrontery, frontier, switchback and 196 more...
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The Glyphs & How to Name Them
Being a list of the proper names of glyphs, both exotic and common, found in the typographer's toolbox.
ogonek, macron, horn, hook, dot, diaeresis, umlaut, circumflex, cedilla, inverted breve, breve, double grave, grave and 60 more...
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Quite a Character
Marks, symbols, and funny squiggly lines in typography.
tilde, diacritic, apostrophe, colon, comma, ellipsis, hyphen, semicolon, asterisk, at, backslash, umlaut and 16 more...
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simple & useful 16
walter mitty, countervailing, fulcrum, wayfaring, in arrears, calculatingly, versification, fetching, circumfluous, intertwisted, graven image, whammo and 81 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for backslash.
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