Backward compatibility refers to hardware or software that can successfully use interfaces and data from earlier versions of the system or with other systems. For example, Perl, the scripting language, was designed to be backward compatible with awk, an earlier language that Perl was designed to replace.
b æ k w ə ɹ d WORD_BOUNDARY k ə m p æ t ə b ɪ l ɪ t i WORD_BOUNDARY ɹ ɪ f ɜː z WORD_BOUNDARY t ə WORD_BOUNDARY h ɑ ɹ d w ɛ ɹ WORD_BOUNDARY ɔ ɹ WORD_BOUNDARY s ɔ f t w ɛ ɹ WORD_BOUNDARY ð æ t WORD_BOUNDARY k æ n WORD_BOUNDARY s ə k s ɛ s f ə l i WORD_BOUNDARY j uː s WORD_BOUNDARY ɪ n t ə ɹ f eɪ s ɪ z WORD_BOUNDARY æ n d WORD_BOUNDARY d eɪ t ə WORD_BOUNDARY f ɹ ʌ m WORD_BOUNDARY ɜː l ɪ ə ɹ WORD_BOUNDARY v ɜː ʒ ə n z WORD_BOUNDARY ʌ v ð ə WORD_BOUNDARY s ɪ s t ə m WORD_BOUNDARY ɔ ɹ WORD_BOUNDARY w ɪ ð WORD_BOUNDARY ʌ ð ə ɹ WORD_BOUNDARY s ɪ s t ə m z WORD_BOUNDARY f ɔ ɹ WORD_BOUNDARY ɛ ɡ z æ m p ə l WORD_BOUNDARY p ɜː l WORD_BOUNDARY ð ə WORD_BOUNDARY s k ɹ ɪ p t ɪ ŋ WORD_BOUNDARY l æ ŋ ɡ w ɪ d̠ʒ WORD_BOUNDARY w ʌ z WORD_BOUNDARY d ɪ z aɪ n d WORD_BOUNDARY t ə b i WORD_BOUNDARY b æ k w ə ɹ d WORD_BOUNDARY k ə m p æ t ɪ b ə l WORD_BOUNDARY w ɪ ð WORD_BOUNDARY ɔ k WORD_BOUNDARY ʌ n WORD_BOUNDARY ɜː l ɪ ə ɹ WORD_BOUNDARY l æ ŋ ɡ w ɪ d̠ʒ WORD_BOUNDARY ð æ t WORD_BOUNDARY p ɜː l WORD_BOUNDARY w ʌ z WORD_BOUNDARY d ɪ z aɪ n d WORD_BOUNDARY t ə WORD_BOUNDARY ɹ ɪ p l eɪ s WORD_BOUNDARY