Dictionary entry
backpropagation
also backprop
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Definition of backpropagation
-
: the method used to train neural networks, which works backward from an error to calculate how much each weight contributed to it, so all weights can be adjusted together
- Backpropagation is the reason deep networks can be trained at all.
- Every training step runs a forward pass and then backpropagation.
Origin & history
first known use1986
Popularized in a 1986 paper by David Rumelhart, Geoffrey Hinton and Ronald Williams, building on earlier work.
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Cite this entry
"Backpropagation." AI Dictionary, Dadgogo, https://dadgogo.com/dictionary/backpropagation/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2026.
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