ENGLISH
REFERENCE

rollback

n. countable
C1 Advanced US //ˈɹoʊɫˌbæk// UK //ɹˈəʊlbæk// roll·back Informal

n. a way of returning a system or process to an earlier, working state. You use this when a new change causes problems and you need to go back to how things were before.

n. the process of reverting a system, software, or process to a previous state to resolve errors or instability. Often used in technical contexts to describe the reversal of a failed update or configuration change.


SIMPLE

The IT team performed a rollback after the new software crashed.

CONTEXTUAL

After the security patch caused widespread login failures, the administrators initiated a rollback to the previous stable version.

COMPLEX

While the initial deployment of the new architecture promised significant performance gains, the subsequent rollback highlighted the inherent risks of implementing untested changes in a production environment without a robust recovery plan.

Origin

The noun is a deverbal from roll back. The verb is a back-formation from the noun despite being redundant to roll back.

© 2026 English Reference