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Backward vs Regression - What's the difference?

backward | regression |

As nouns the difference between backward and regression

is that backward is the state behind or past while regression is regression.

As an adjective backward

is (of motion) pertaining to the direction towards the back.

As an adverb backward

is (of motion) in the direction towards the back; backwards.

backward

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (of motion) Pertaining to the direction towards the back.
    • They left without a backward glance.
  • (of motion) Pertaining to the direction reverse of normal.
    • The occasional backward movement of planets is evidence they revolve around the sun.
  • Reluctant or unable to advance.
  • * 1919 ,
    • Then her eyes, always alert for the affairs of her kitchen, fell on some action of the Chinese cook which aroused her violent disapproval. She turned on him with a torrent of abuse. The Chink was not backward to defend himself, and a very lively quarrel ensued.
  • * Don't be backward in suggesting story ideas to local media but always think of the wants, needs and desires of their readers when selling-in story ideas.[http://www.mortgagemagazine.com.au/detail_article.cfm?articleID=364]
  • Of a culture considered undeveloped or unsophisticated.
  • * Most cruelly, the immediate security interests of the United States and the states surrounding Somalia are now to keep it a failed state, to prevent Islamists from consolidating even a weak state centered on Mogadishu. The leader of the victorious faction, one Aden Hashi 'Ayro, is said to be a veteran of Afghanistan; he knows well what a small sanctuary in a backward corner of the globe can mean for al Qaeda. [http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2006/06/1851044]
  • Pertaining to a thought or value that is considered outdated.
  • * Replace the morbid, bankrupting, backward idea of superpower domination: Weapons dismantled. Global warming reversed. Perhaps, in time, overpopulation, poverty, starvation, ignorance and disease all resolved. Thus, moral determination combined with 21st Century science, ecology and social initiatives will make possible a resonant fulfillment of our American Revolution [http://www.counterpunch.org/bice01042003.html]
  • (cricket) On that part of the field behind the batsman's popping crease.
  • (cricket) Further behind the batsman's popping crease than something else.
  • (obsolete) Unwilling; averse; reluctant.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • For wiser brutes were backward to be slaves.
  • Slow to apprehend; having difficulties in learning.
    • a backward child
  • Late or behindhand.
    • a backward season
  • (obsolete) Already past or gone; bygone.
  • * Byron
    • and flies unconscious o'er each backward year

    Synonyms

    * (in reverse direction) retrograde * (of an undeveloped culture) third world * backwards, fogyish, old-fashioned, antiquated, antediluvian, unprogressive, retrograde, outdated, parachronistic, out of date

    Antonyms

    * (of an undeveloped culture) forward * (of an outdated thought) progressive

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (of motion) In the direction towards the back; backwards
    • to walk or ride backward'''; to throw the arms '''backward
  • Toward, or in, past time or events; ago.
  • * John Locke
    • some reigns backward
  • By way of reflection; reflexively.
  • From a better to a worse state, as from honor to shame, from religion to sin.
  • * Dryden
    • The work went backward .

    Synonyms

    * backwards

    Antonyms

    * forward, forwards

    Related terms

    * backwards

    Noun

  • The state behind or past.
  • * Shakespeare
    • In the dark backward and abysm of time.

    Anagrams

    *

    regression

    English

    (wikipedia regression)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An action of regressing, a return to a previous state.
  • * 1899: Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class
    • Few of these groups or communities that are classed as "savage" show no traces of regression from a more advanced cultural stage.
  • (psychotherapy) A psychotherapeutic method whereby healing is facilitated by inducing the patient to act out behaviour typical of an earlier developmental stage.
  • (statistics) An analytic method to measure the association of one or more independent variables with a dependent variable.
  • (statistics) An equation using specified and associated data for two or more variables such that one variable can be estimated from the remaining variable(s).
  • (programming) The reappearance of a bug in a piece of software that had previously been fixed.

    • Antonyms

    * progression

    Derived terms

    * linear regression * regression to the mean * regression testing (computing) * regression therapy (psychotherapy)