How to Use back channel in a Sentence

back channel

noun
  • Over the past few weeks there have been hints that back channel talks were bridging gaps.
    — Nic Robertson, CNN, 26 Mar. 2018
  • What’s not entirely clear is what the back channel would have been for.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 8 Mar. 2018
  • This makes the meeting at least the second time the back channel was brought up.
    — Elizabeth Drew, The New Republic, 8 Mar. 2018
  • Through back channels, those teams have gotten the brush-off from the Spurs.
    — Sean Meagher, OregonLive.com, 10 May 2018
  • Even Oman, long Tehran’s back channel to the West, was struck.
    — Mohammed Sergie, semafor.com, 6 Mar. 2026
  • Trades could be lined up, or soon-to-be free agents who have signaled their interest through back channels.
    — David Murphy, Philly.com, 31 May 2018
  • WhatsApp functioned as an all-purpose back channel at work.
    — Sam Knight, New Yorker, 12 Jan. 2026
  • Neither side is keen to advertise the existence of these back channels.
    — Isobel Koshiw, Washington Post, 24 Oct. 2023
  • Without a two-way cable network, a standard analog modem must be used as a back channel.
    — Popular Mechanics, 7 Feb. 2019
  • There's going to be a back channel diplomatic solution to this.
    — Tax Notes Staff, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Maybe assets are being mobilized through back channels.
    — Brady Knox, The Washington Examiner, 14 Mar. 2026
  • That's always been our back channel, is there are intelligence agency.
    — Fox News, 25 Apr. 2018
  • In an all-action display, there were also recovery runs into the right-back channel.
    — Patrick Boyland, New York Times, 30 Sep. 2025
  • Henry Kissinger used to meet regularly with Putin as a back channel.
    — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 29 Mar. 2022
  • There are walleye fish and back channel messages with a Costco manager.
    — New York Times, 9 June 2021
  • So far, there has not been contact between the two sides, either formal or back channel, according to Clark.
    — Barry M. Bloom, Sportico.com, 4 Nov. 2025
  • Players usually can learn through back channels whom the manager will be, or at least the most likely candidates.
    — Henry Schulman, SFChronicle.com, 25 Sep. 2019
  • Haspel used her contacts to successfully deliver the message through a back channel.
    — James Hohmann, Washington Post, 8 May 2018
  • Instead, machines back channel to one another to sort out who is a legitimate web visitor and who isn’t.
    — Shira Ovide, Anchorage Daily News, 26 July 2023
  • What’s to stop a big-name school going back channel and offering the family a pile of NIL dough?
    — oregonlive, 2 Dec. 2022
  • As the strike wore on, actors such as George Clooney eventually worked back channels to help bring the labor stoppage to an end.
    — Emily Longeretta, Variety, 13 Feb. 2025
  • Do not encourage back channels, and eliminate any patterns that are driven by urgency, fear or avoidance.
    — Leeza Carlone Steindorf, Forbes.com, 25 June 2026
  • Our move should be to warn the Russians directly, in public and via back channels, that such behavior will not be tolerated.
    — The Editors, National Review, 17 Mar. 2023
  • The emir’s visit to Iran was one of many diplomatic forays aimed at calming regional tensions and keeping back channels open.
    — Washington Post, 13 Jan. 2020
  • What is clear, the Jeddah meet and the back channel diplomacy buys diplomatic space and time to develop an off ramp that has a least a little traction for now.
    — Nic Robertson, CNN, 8 Aug. 2024
  • Behind the scenes, their panic and confusion are revealed in the many back channels companies are building to the White House.
    — The Week Us, TheWeek, 28 Jan. 2026
  • That prompted speculation that the two governments are setting up a back channel, which would bypass Mr Guaidó.
    — The Economist, 18 Dec. 2019
  • Immediately after the meeting, Khalilzad’s team in Doha, which had been in the loop about the back channel, received two calls.
    — New York Times, 10 Dec. 2021
  • As Taiwanese officials are forced to work back channels to argue their case, the situation is only worsening.
    — Timothy Nerozzi, The Washington Examiner, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Farah, according to Hutchinson, agreed to serve as a back channel to the committee to provide it with the right questions to ask when Hutchinson returned.
    — Bart Jansen, USA TODAY, 22 Dec. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'back channel.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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