as in off-the-record
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Recent Examples of back-channel
Oman played an instrumental role in the back-channel negotiations between Iran, the United States, and Europe that led to the Iran nuclear deal in 2015.
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Galip Dalay, Time, 6 Jan. 2026
Pras was also accused of using this money to create a back-channel campaign to extradite the Chinese dissident Guo Wengui back to China from the United States.
—Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 20 Nov. 2025
While the university has focussed on back-channel diplomacy, Maine’s Democratic government has gone to court.
—Emma Green, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2025
The summit marked the culmination of several months of back-channel diplomacy.
—Katya Soldak, Forbes.com, 19 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for back-channel
Adjective
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Sometimes these occur during our quarterly CEO forums, in public but off-the-record exchanges.—
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Puck promises off-the-record conversations with editors in their top subscription tier, and Lauren Sherman often recaps her off-the-record dinners on her podcast and in her column.—
Adjective
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Rubio, who is also Trump’s national security adviser, was one of three U.S. officials to participate in a closed-door meeting with the Russian delegation on Friday in Alaska.—
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The revelation was made by House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) after Barr testified in a closed-door interview during the House Oversight Committee’s investigation of the federal government’s handling of Epstein’s case.—
Adjective
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The eponymous security droid protagonist (played by Alexander Skarsgård) actually chose its own name and, thanks to some off-the-books hacking, developed free will.—
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Meanwhile, Petek says, the state has rung up $21.6 billion in off-the-books debt to cover deficits in recent fiscal years.—
Adjective
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To create this unique cinematic experience, Stewart and Poots endured rigorous trial-and-error shoots, tough training days in clandestine New York pool houses.—
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Saimar Rivas, Armas’s partner and a longtime civil-rights activist, told me that he had been taken to a clandestine site run by the SEBIN, Venezuela’s intelligence agency.—
Adjective
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But Prayer is not your humdrum, surreptitious post–Cowboy Carter cash-out.—
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Jamian Juliano-Villani’s friezelike painting Women, 2024, offers a surreptitious turn on Marcel Duchamp and Eadweard Muybridge by featuring an ostensibly female figure with too many (and ambiguously gendered) appendages.—
Adjective
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Danish media reported that at least three people with connections to Trump carried out covert influence operations in Greenland.—
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Federal statute mandates the president inform a bipartisan group of eight, high-ranking members of Congress prior to particularly covert operations.—
Cite this Entry
“Back-channel.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/back-channel. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
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