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say it: bi-HAHYND
behind is an adverb, noun and adjective meaning "in or to or toward the rear". It is pronounced /bɪˈhaɪnd/ — bi-HAHYND. It carries 7 recorded senses.
in or to or toward the rear
“he followed behind”
“seen from behind, the house is more imposing than it is from the front”
“the final runners were far behind”
remaining in a place or condition that has been left or departed from
“when he died he left much unfinished work behind”
“left a large family behind”
“the children left their books behind”
“he took off with a squeal of tires and left the other cars far behind”
in or into an inferior position
“fell behind in his studies”
“their business was lagging behind in the competition for customers”
in debt
“he fell behind with his mortgage payments”
“a month behind in the rent”
“a company that has been run behindhand for years”
“in arrears with their utility bills”
having the lower score or lagging position in a contest
“behind by two points”
“the 8th inning found the home team trailing”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for behind come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.