Meaning & Origin
“Back to square one” means that progress has been lost and you must start over — typically after a failed attempt or a setback. The phrase likely comes from numbered boards in games or early radio sports diagrams that used “squares” to track play.
Pronunciation Guide
- back to — linked smoothly in fast speech.
- square — sounds like “skwair.”
- one — short and clear.
- Natural rhythm: BACK to SQUARE ONE.
Usage & Sentence Examples
Use it when you must restart planning or work from the beginning.
- The partnership fell through, so we’re back to square one.
- If legal rejects the clause, we’ll be back to square one on the contract.
- The experiment failed, putting the team back to square one.
- After the reorg, hiring is back to square one.
- The migration plan broke in staging — back to square one.
- Without reliable data, our forecast is back to square one.
Synonyms
start over · reset · from scratch · back to the drawing board · reboot the plan · begin again
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