Backspace

Although the term "backspace" is the traditional name of the key which steps the carriage back and/or[note 3] deletes the previous character, typically to the left of the cursor, the actual key may be labeled in a variety of ways, for example delete,[1] erase,[note 4] or with a left pointing arrow.

This technique (also known as overstrike) is the basis for such spacing modifiers in computer character sets such as the ASCII caret (^, for the circumflex accent).

The backspace key is commonly used to go back a page or up one level in graphical web or file browsers.

Example: An alternative sometimes seen is ^W, which is the shortcut to delete the previous word in the Berkeley Unix terminal line discipline.

[9] In a mainframe environment, to backspace means to move a magnetic tape backwards, typically to the previous block.

Backspace key
An early typewriter with a backspacer [sic] key. ( Blickensderfer Model 7)
Tilde Exclamation mark At sign Number sign Dollar sign Percent sign Caret Ampersand Asterisk Parenthesis Parenthesis Underscore Plus sign Backspace Backtick 1 (number) 2 (number) 3 (number) 4 (number) 5 (number) 6 (number) 7 (number) 8 (number) 9 (number) 0 Hyphen-minus Equals sign Backspace Tab key Q W E R T Y U I O P Curly bracket Curly bracket Vertical bar Tab key Q W E R T Y U I O P Square bracket Square bracket Backslash Caps lock A S D F G H J K L Colon (punctuation) Quotation mark Enter key Caps lock A S D F G H J K L Semicolon Apostrophe Enter key Shift key Z X C V B N M Bracket Bracket Question mark Shift key Shift key Z X C V B N M Comma (punctuation) Full stop Slash (punctuation) Shift key Control key Windows key Alt key Space bar Alt key thumb Menu key Control key