backreference

Etymology

From back + reference.

backreference means an item in a regular expression equivalent to the text matched by an earlier pattern in the expression. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 83 out of 100.

noun

An item in a regular expression equivalent to the text matched by an earlier pattern in the expression.“The third part of the regular expression, \1, is the backreference and tells ColdFusion to refer back to the first subexpression[…]”

verb

To access (the text matched by an earlier pattern in a regular expression).“By wrapping it in parentheses, the attributes can be reused by backreferencing this part of the pattern[…]”