Words in the News (4) ✨BACKLASH✨

B2, C1 Level English Vocabulary

Happy Friday, word lovers! It’s time to look at another word which often features in headlines.

✨ BACKLASH✨

– a strong, often angry reaction from a large number of people to an event, change, etc

🔹 The singer faced BACKLASH from her fans for starting her concert over an hour late.

🔹 The controversial influencer sparked BACKLASH over his comments on women’s rights.

🔹 The government’s welfare reforms have received intense BACKLASH from some charities and the public.

🔹 There was massive BACKLASH over the CEO’s pay increase as hundreds of staff had just been made redundant.

It’s worth also noting the common verb collocations for BACKLASH – face, receive, spark, provoke, cause

Now for some headlines:

“UK’s first permanent facial recognition cameras to be installed in south London despite backlash” (The Standard)

“Vance to accompany wife to Greenland amid backlash” (Yahoo)

“With women’s sport on the rise, the ‘anti-feminist backlash’ is under way” (The Telegraph)

“OpenAI’s Studio Ghibli-inspired AI art provokes backlash across the internet” (Mashable)

“Meta scrambles to delete its own AI accounts after backlash intensifies” (CNN)

“Germany’s plans to impose border checks spark backlash” (DW)

“‘We won’t back down’: Global leaders threaten backlash to Trump auto tariff” (Al Jazeera)

Over to you!

1. Can you think of a rule change at your school or place of work which caused some backlash?

2. Can you think of a movie or book which sparked backlash?

3. Can you think of a celebrity whose comments caused backlash?

4. What recent event has provoked intense backlash?

You can write your answer(s) in the comments or in my EnglishSmarts Telegram channel.