DadgogoAI Dictionary

Dictionary entry

backpropagation

noun \ˌbak-ˌprä-pə-ˈgā-shən\

also backprop

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Definition of backpropagation

  1. : 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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