Backwards vs Null - What's the difference?
backwards | null |
Oriented toward the back.
Reversed.
(derogatory) Behind current trends or technology.
Clumsy, inept, or inefficient.
Toward the back.
In the opposite direction to usual.
In a manner such that the back precedes the front.
A non-existent or empty value or set of values.
Zero]] quantity of [[expression, expressions; nothing.
Something that has no force or meaning.
(computing) the ASCII or Unicode character (), represented by a zero value, that indicates no character and is sometimes used as a string terminator.
(computing) the attribute of an entity that has no valid value.
One of the beads in nulled work.
(statistics) null hypothesis
Having no validity, "null and void"
insignificant
* 1924 , Marcel Proust, Within a Budding Grove :
absent or non-existent
(mathematics) of the null set
(mathematics) of or comprising a value of precisely zero
(genetics, of a mutation) causing a complete loss of gene function, amorphic.
As an adjective backwards
is oriented toward the back.As an adverb backwards
is toward the back.As a noun null is
zero, nil; the cardinal number before einn.backwards
English
Alternative forms
* backwardAdjective
(en adjective)- The battleship had three backwards guns at the stern, in addition to the primary complement .
- The backwards lettering on emergency vehicles makes it possible to read in the rear-view mirror.
- Modern medicine regards the use of leeches as a backwards practice.
- He was a very backwards scholar, but he was a marvel on the football field.
Usage notes
* In senses 3 and 4, and often in American English, backward is preferred.Synonyms
* (oriented toward the back) * (reversed) mirror image, switched, back to front * (behind current trends or technology) crude, dated, obsolete, primitive * awkward, fumbling, incompetent, poorAdverb
(en adverb)- The cabinet toppled over backwards .
- Life is lived forwards, but understood backwards . —Søren Kierkegaard
- The clock did not work because the battery was inserted backwards .
- The tour guide walked backwards while droning on to the bored seniors.
Usage notes
* In written American English, backward is more common. * Strictly speaking, backwards'' is an adverb and ''backward is an adjective in British English; in American English, the rule may be reversed. This follows the same usage for similar words ending in -ward/-wards and -way/-ways. See also -wise. *: It was a backward move'' vs ''He moved backwards * Also, even though an adverb may be used in adjectival combinations (eg a quickly moving car ), only the -ward forms are commonly used in adjectival combinations, e.g.: *: A backward-facing statue. / A backward facing statue.Synonyms
* (toward the back) hindwards, rearward, retrograde * (in the opposite direction of usual) contrariwise, reversedly * (so that the back precedes the front) back to front, in reverseDerived terms
* backwards and forwardsAnagrams
*null
English
Noun
(en noun)- (Francis Bacon)
- Since no date of birth was entered for the patient, his age is null .
Adjective
(en adjective)- In proportion as we descend the social scale our snobbishness fastens on to mere nothings which are perhaps no more null than the distinctions observed by the aristocracy, but, being more obscure, more peculiar to the individual, take us more by surprise.