: an act or instance of reproducing recorded sound or pictures often immediately after recording
played back; playing back; plays back
: to perform a playback of (a usually recently recorded disc or tape)
Examples of playback in a Sentence
Noun
The band listened to a playback of their first recording.
Recent Examples on the Web
Matt Emma, USA Today, 23 Dec. 2025
These are now commonly built into a range of speakers and playback devices, allowing lossless tracks—and even hi-res music—to be streamed directly from the company's servers to a compatible device over Wi-Fi.
—Simon Lucas, Wired News, 21 Dec. 2025
Eddie Brown, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Dec. 2025
Some of Yoshiki’s memories play back under a layer of film grain, with a warm glow and a boxy aspect, capturing the aesthetics of older anime.
—Kambole Campbell, Vulture, 9 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for playback
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Noun
The projector includes a dedicated 24 FPS mode to match the frame rate of most films, and also supports Active 3D playback for users interested in three-dimensional content.
—Matt Emma, USA Today, 23 Dec. 2025
These are now commonly built into a range of speakers and playback devices, allowing lossless tracks—and even hi-res music—to be streamed directly from the company's servers to a compatible device over Wi-Fi.
—Simon Lucas, Wired News, 21 Dec. 2025
Verb
One of my favorite games to play back in the day was roulette.
—Eddie Brown, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Dec. 2025
Some of Yoshiki’s memories play back under a layer of film grain, with a warm glow and a boxy aspect, capturing the aesthetics of older anime.
—Kambole Campbell, Vulture, 9 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for playback
Cite this Entry
“Playback.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/playback. Accessed 31 Dec. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
playback
1 of 2 noun
play·back
ˈplā-ˌbak 
: the action of reproducing recorded sound or pictures often immediately after recording
play back
2 of 2 verb(ˈ)plā-ˈbak
: to perform a playback of (a disc or tape)
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