setback.

1. An event that delays progress or makes a situation worse.

2. A distance by which a building or part of it is placed back from a boundary or lower section.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• temporary setback
• serious setback

On the page

The failed test was a setback, not the end of the project.

Usage notes

Primary category: architecture / spatial description. Forms: Singular setback; plural setbacks. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: setting, description. Commonness: moderately common.