How to Use backward-looking in a Sentence

backward-looking

adjective
  • Numbers are backward-looking by nature.
    — Jason Ballard, Forbes.com, 21 Jan. 2026
  • First, reporting is too backward-looking.
    — Anthony A. Luna, Forbes.com, 26 May 2026
  • And the thing to do was just to tidy up the mess and move on with as little recrimination and backward-looking as possible.
    — David Frum, The Atlantic, 18 Feb. 2026
  • For a form that takes aim at the issues of the present, the protest song in 2026 is curiously backward-looking.
    — Mitch Therieau, New Yorker, 7 Feb. 2026
  • Resume metrics are backward-looking and try to measure a team’s accomplishments.
    — Jim Root, New York Times, 12 Mar. 2026
  • Resume metrics are backward-looking and try to measure a team’s accomplishments.
    — Jim Root, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2026
  • Resume metrics are backward-looking and try to measure a team’s accomplishments.
    — Jim Root, New York Times, 6 Mar. 2026
  • Resume metrics are backward-looking and try to measure a team’s accomplishments.
    — Jim Root, New York Times, 13 Feb. 2026
  • Most engines relied on sparse, backward-looking purchase histories.
    — Sindhya Valloppillil, Forbes.com, 19 Aug. 2025
  • Yet, investors largely treated that adjustment as backward-looking.
    — Benzinga, Freep.com, 14 Feb. 2026
  • That means by the time an indictment is returned, the factual narrative typically reflects a backward-looking account of conduct that may stretch over a decade.
    — Andrew S. Boutros, Chicago Tribune, 29 Apr. 2026
  • That’s especially true when compared with the director’s usual, backward-looking fare, which has dominated his oeuvre during the past two decades.
    — David Sims, The Atlantic, 18 Sep. 2025
  • Boards must evolve from being consumers of backward-looking data to stewards of foresight, able to anticipate risks and seize emerging opportunities.
    — Michael Hilb, Forbes.com, 9 Sep. 2025
  • Retailers relying on static, backward-looking engines can’t compete.
    — Sindhya Valloppillil, Forbes.com, 19 Aug. 2025
  • For the broad electorate, particularly the persuadable voters who decide our elections on a national level, midterms are backward-looking.
    — Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 2 Jan. 2026
  • Goldman noted even on a backward-looking basis, valuation metrics have sunk to levels last seen in the aftermath of the early-2000s tech bust.
    — Yun Li, CNBC, 7 Apr. 2026
  • As a result, Moyn says, the country’s fate and character are being determined not by forward-looking people in their youth or their prime but by backward-looking ones in the final third of their lives.
    — Joshua Rothman, New Yorker, 12 June 2026
  • For institutional and retail clients alike, that means strategies informed by real-time intelligence rather than backward-looking assumptions.
    — Brent Gleeson, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2025
  • By contrast, the United States relies on backward-looking indicators such as trade balances and foreign direct investment flows.
    — Noosheen Hashemi, Time, 26 Jan. 2026
  • This backward-looking bias is especially dangerous at times of disruption, precisely when organizations need leaders who can learn, adapt, and reinvent themselves.
    — Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Forbes.com, 20 Jan. 2026
  • Because assembling the numbers takes so long, monthly executive meetings have frequently devolved into backward-looking readouts.
    — Tom Strohl, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
  • Reports are often backward-looking, disconnected from real-time operations, and difficult to translate into clear actions.
    — Melissa Houston, Forbes.com, 18 May 2026
  • For an industry where measurement has traditionally been backward-looking, this real-time capability marks a meaningful change.
    — Kiri Masters, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
  • This backward-looking approach fails entirely against novel attack vectors like synthetic identity creation and deepfake social engineering.
    — Ethan Stone, USA Today, 11 May 2026
  • In a restaurant town flooded with Frenchness, Chateau Royale offers a welcome sense of cheeky self-awareness, with a backward-looking menu that embraces all the Gallic pomp and dairy fat of an earlier age.
    — Helen Rosner, New Yorker, 14 Dec. 2025
  • Powell was also asked about whether the Fed’s economic models focused too much on backward-looking data and don’t incorporate game-changing developments like AI.
    — Jason Ma, Fortune, 30 Jan. 2026
  • By integrating the timeless framework of structured planning principles with the speed of AI, companies can finally escape the endless cycle of backward-looking reporting.
    — Tom Strohl, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
  • These backward-looking methods identify failures only after harm is done, whether in the form of regulatory penalties, operational disruptions or reputational damage.
    — Nosa Omoigui, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2025
  • Yet the stock’s reaction to earnings has remained uniformly positive, suggesting investors have been more focused on forward commentary and positioning than backward-looking results, the Wall Street research firm said.
    — Yun Li, CNBC, 22 Jan. 2026
  • Faced with ambiguous leadership choices, decision-makers retreat to familiar metrics and reassuring track records, mistaking backward-looking evidence for forward-looking insight.
    — Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Forbes.com, 20 Jan. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'backward-looking.' 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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