hatchback

US/ˈhæt͡ʃˌbæk/

nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,250 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: hatchbacks

A hatchback is a car whose rear door lifts up together with the window. Open it, and the boot is part of the cabin.

That single feature defines the shape, and it is what separates a hatchback from a saloon, where the boot is a separate sealed box. Folding the rear seats turns a hatchback into a small van, which is why the format took over Europe. Hot hatch is the name for a small fast one, and it is one of the most affectionate categories in motoring.

Definitions of hatchback

1nounhatchbackA car with a rear door that opens upwards including the window.B2+
“They swapped the estate for a small hatchback.”

Where it comes from

From hatch + back.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove, Vehicles & Machines

First appears in chapter 28 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

hatchback in the wild

The first-generation Civic was introduced in July 1972 as a two-door fastback sedan, followed by a three-door hatchback that September.
Honda Civic
A hot hatch (shortened from hot hatchback) is a high-performance variant of a hatchback car.
Hot hatch
The term originated in the mid-1980s; however, sportier factory versions of hatchbacks have been produced since the 1970s.
Hot hatch
The first generation of the BMW 1 Series consists of the BMW E81 (3-door hatchback), BMW E82 (coupe), BMW E87 (5-door hatchback) and BMW E88 (convertible) compact cars.
BMW 1 Series (E87)
From 2006 to 2018 in Japan and much of the world, and from 2018 to 2020 in Taiwan, the hatchback companion had been called the Toyota Auris.
Toyota Corolla

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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