: 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
Mark Sparrow, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
Its playback fidelity was superior to over-the-air programming and to magnetic tape.
—Allison Marsh, IEEE Spectrum, 17 Sep. 2025
Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly, 18 Sep. 2025
All of the home video systems under development included a storage medium—film, magnetic tape, nonmagnetic tape, and vinyl discs of various size and composition—and a device to play back the audio and video in high resolution.
—Allison Marsh, IEEE Spectrum, 17 Sep. 2025
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Noun
Featuring Teac’s proprietary high-quality CD mechanism, the PD-507T is suitable for external DACs and a wide range of digital audio systems where reference-grade CD playback is required.
—Mark Sparrow, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
Its playback fidelity was superior to over-the-air programming and to magnetic tape.
—Allison Marsh, IEEE Spectrum, 17 Sep. 2025
Verb
Probst says the action on the screen — along with those two mystery contestants playing back-to-back — will speak for itself.
—Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly, 18 Sep. 2025
All of the home video systems under development included a storage medium—film, magnetic tape, nonmagnetic tape, and vinyl discs of various size and composition—and a device to play back the audio and video in high resolution.
—Allison Marsh, IEEE Spectrum, 17 Sep. 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 20 Sep. 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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