Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

laid-back

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: 4.55 in modern English

Syllables: laid-back
IPA

17

Scrabble Score

8

Letters

2

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Relaxed and easy‐going; demonstrating an absence of stress or worry.

Example Sentences

"This hit‐writer of the early 60s came out with a highly contemporary style which fitted the fashionable term ‘laid‐back’, and her Tapestry album zoomed up to become one of the three biggest‐selling LPs of all time."
"The V‐2’s directional system was notoriously erratic. In May 1947, a V‐2 launched from White Sands Proving Ground headed south instead of north, missing downtown Juarez, Mexico, by 3 miles. The Mexican government’s response to the American bombing was admirably laid back. General Enrique Diaz Gonzales and Consul General Raul Michel met with United States officials, who issued apologies and an invitation to come to “the next rocket shoot” at White Sands. […]"
"You have to accept the deliberate unspeed of Italian timetables if you want the right to be liberated by their correspondingly laid‐back lifestyle."

Etymology

From U.S. slang. The verbal phrase lay back is attested from the late 1950s, whereas the adjectival form emerged in print in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Presumably originally a metaphor—literally, “sitting in a tilted‐back chair”, a relaxed posture.

Inflected Forms

more laid-back (comparative) most laid-back (superlative)

Synonyms

easygoing unconcerned airy at ease at peace carefree careless casual chill cool devil-may-care easy-breezy

Questions

What does laid-back mean?: Relaxed and easy‐going; demonstrating an absence of stress or worry.
Where does laid-back come from?: From U.S. slang. The verbal phrase lay back is attested from the late 1950s, whereas the adjectival form emerged in print in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Presumably originally a metaphor—literally, “sitting in a tilted‐back chair”, a relaxed posture.

How to pronounce laid-back

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