backstory.
The previous experiences and life of a person, specifically (narratology, especially in film, television) a character in a dramatic work.
Meaning & usage
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?
A fictitious account of a person's history designed to conceal their actual history and motives.
Where this word comes from
From back- (prefix meaning ‘in, into, or towards the past’) + story.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.