Wiktionary

fallback

See also: fall back and fall-back

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From the verb fall back.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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fallback (countable and uncountable, plural fallbacks)

  1. An act of falling back.
    A failure of one of the rocket's first-stage engines just after liftoff would result in a destructive pad fallback.
    The black hole formed as a result of fallback of ejecta onto the neutron star initially created by the supernova explosion.
  2. A backup plan or contingency strategy; an alternative which can be used if something goes wrong with the main plan; a recourse.
    As a fallback, I suppose we can use typewriters if the word processing system fails.
  3. (construction) A reduction in bitumen softening point, sometimes called refluxing or overheating, in a relatively closed container.
  4. Pulverised material that falls back to earth after a nuclear explosion; fallout.
    • 1970, Nuclear Science Abstracts, page 3595:
      Particle size distributions of fallback and ejecta were determined principally by mechanical sieving and weighing.

Synonyms

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Hyponyms

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Translations

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Adjective

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fallback (not comparable)

  1. That can be resorted to as a fallback.
    a fallback plan

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Verb

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fallback

  1. Misspelling of fall back.

Anagrams

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