back to square one

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

• Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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Probably from a metaphorical use of the children’s games snakes and ladders.

28 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Dutch: terug naar af — located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• French: de retour à la case départ — located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• German: Alles auf Anfang — located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• German: zurück auf Feld eins — located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Indonesian: kembali ke awal — located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Indonesian: balik ke awal — located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Italian: essere punto e a capo — located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Polish: w punkcie wyjścia — located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Portuguese: voltar à estaca zero — located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Russian: на круги своя́ (na krugi svojá) — located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Russian: у разби́того коры́та (u razbítovo korýta) — located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Spanish: de vuelta a la casilla de salida — located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Spanish: volver a la casilla de salida — located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Swedish: tillbaka till ruta ett — located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Tagalog: balik sa umpisa — located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Chinese Mandarin: 回到原點 /回到原点 (huídào yuándiǎn) — back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Dutch: terug naar af — back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Finnish: takaisin lähtöruutuun — back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• French: de retour à la case départ — back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• French: Gros-Jean comme devant — back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Hindi: लौट के बुद्धू घर को आए (lauṭ ke buddhū ghar ko āe) — back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Indonesian: kembali ke awal — back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Indonesian: balik ke awal — back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Polish: w punkcie wyjścia — back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Spanish: foja cero — back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Spanish: fojas cero — back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Spanish: de vuelta a la casilla de salida — back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Spanish: volver a la casilla de salida — back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure