backslash

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.

• /ˈbækˌslæʃ/
  Play
• Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  Play
• rhymes with -æʃ
  Play
• CMU ARPABET: B AE1 K S L AE2 SH Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
  Play

From back + slash, because it is a slash “leaning back” against the direction of writing (in writing lines from left to right), in contrast to the more common (forward) slash / (“solidus, oblique, diagonal”). The actual direction of (hand-)writing these marks can be reversed, when writing from left to right, top to baseline: the backslash forwards, the (forward) slash backwards. The naming can be explained as an anthropomorphism, assuming a bar (|) standing on the baseline, facing in the direction of writing, toppling backwards or forwards, respectively. The (new) Unicode name of \ is REVERSE SOLIDUS.

58 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Arabic: مَائِلَة مُعَاكِسَة (māʔila muʕākisa) — punctuation mark
• Bulgarian: обра́тна черта́ (obrátna čertá) — punctuation mark
• Chinese Mandarin: 反斜線 /反斜线 (fǎnxiéxiàn) — punctuation mark
• Chinese Mandarin: 反斜槓 /反斜杠 (fǎnxiégàng) — punctuation mark
• Czech: zpětné lomítko — punctuation mark
• Dutch: backslash — punctuation mark
• Dutch: terugschrap — punctuation mark
• Dutch: omgekeerde schuine streep — punctuation mark
• Dutch: schuine streep naar links — punctuation mark
• Dutch: schuine streep naar achter — punctuation mark
• Dutch: terugstreep — punctuation mark
• Esperanto: deklivo — punctuation mark
• Estonian: kurakaldkriips — punctuation mark
• Estonian: längkriips — punctuation mark
• Estonian: kurakriips — punctuation mark
• Faroese: bakskák — punctuation mark
• Finnish: kenoviiva — punctuation mark
• French: barre oblique inversée — punctuation mark
• French: contre-oblique — punctuation mark
• French: backslash — punctuation mark
• French: antislash — punctuation mark
• German: Backslash — punctuation mark
• German: Rückwärtsschrägstrich — punctuation mark
• Greek: αντιπλάγια (antiplágia) — punctuation mark
• Greek: ανάστροφη κάθετος (anástrofi káthetos) — punctuation mark
• Hungarian: fordított törtvonal — punctuation mark
• Italian: barra inversa — punctuation mark
• Japanese: バックスラッシュ (bakkusurasshu) — punctuation mark
• Japanese: 逆斜線 (gyakushasen) — punctuation mark
• Korean: 역슬래시 (yeokseullaesi) — punctuation mark
• Korean: 역사선 (yeoksaseon) — punctuation mark
• Macedonian: лева коса црта (leva kosa crta) — punctuation mark
• Maltese: sinjal djagonali — punctuation mark
• Norwegian Bokmål: bakstrek — punctuation mark
• Polish: ukośnik odwrotny — punctuation mark
• Polish: ukośnik wsteczny — punctuation mark
• Polish: ukośnik lewy — punctuation mark
• Portuguese: barra invertida — punctuation mark
• Portuguese: barra inversa — punctuation mark
• Portuguese: contrabarra — punctuation mark
• Romanian: bară oblică inversă — punctuation mark
• Romanian: linie oblică inversă — punctuation mark
• Russian: обра́тная коса́я (obrátnaja kosája) — punctuation mark
• Russian: обра́тная коса́я черта́ (obrátnaja kosája čertá) — punctuation mark
• Russian: обра́тный слэш (obrátnyj slɛš) — punctuation mark
• Russian: бе́кслэ́ш (békslɛ́š) — punctuation mark
• Slovak: spätná lomka — punctuation mark
• Slovak: opačná lomka — punctuation mark
• Slovene: leva poševnica — punctuation mark
• Spanish: barra inversa — punctuation mark
• Spanish: barra oblicua inversa — punctuation mark
• Spanish: barra invertida — punctuation mark
• Spanish: barra revertida — punctuation mark
• Spanish: contrabarra — punctuation mark
• Thai: แบ็กสแลช — punctuation mark
• Turkish: ters bölü — punctuation mark
• Ukrainian: обе́рнена скісна́ ри́ска (obérnena skisná rýska) — punctuation mark
• Ukrainian: бе́кслеш (béksleš) — punctuation mark