backwoods

American  

[bak-woodz] / ˈbækˈwʊdz /

noun

1. (often used with a singular verb) wooded or partially uncleared and unsettled districts.

2. any remote or isolated area.

   Synonyms:

   backwater, bush, boonies, boondocks, woodland, wild, hinterland

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adjective

1. of or relating to the backwoods.

2. unsophisticated; uncouth.

backwoods British  

/ ˈbækwʊdz /

plural noun

1. partially cleared, sparsely populated forests

2. any remote sparsely populated place

3. (modifier) of, from, or like the backwoods

4. (modifier) uncouth; rustic

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Etymology

Origin of backwoods

An Americanism dating back to 1700–10; back ¹ + woods ¹ (in the sense “a forest”)

Example Sentences

In the 2009 film “Get Low,” he was a backwoods hermit who staged his own funeral.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 16, 2026

Rust Cohle slow dances with murmurings about Carcosa in Season 1, and the anthology’s creator Nic Pizzolatto spiced up the mystique by depositing backwoods fetishes near crime scenes.

From Salon • Feb. 5, 2024

Doing so doesn’t require traipsing into the backwoods of Louisiana listening for a double-knock call that may never come.

From Slate • May 27, 2023

Dakota Adams - he and his mother now use her maiden name - spent much of his earliest years not in the backwoods of Montana, but in the middle of America's east coast power centres.

From BBC • Nov. 29, 2022

Years ago a friend and I were served hickory milk in rural Georgia by an eccentric backwoods artist named St. EOM who claimed Creek descent.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Related Words

• backcountry
• outback