Noun: background 'bak,grawnd
- A person's social heritage: previous experience or training
"he is a lawyer with a sports background"
- The part of a scene (or picture) that lies behind objects in the foreground
"he posed her against a background of rolling hills";
- ground, backdrop
- Information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem
"the embassy filled him in on the background of the incident";
- background knowledge
- (computing) the area of the screen in graphical user interfaces against which icons and windows appear
"He changed his screen background to a serene landscape image";
- desktop, screen background
- Scenery hung at the back of a stage
"The painted background showed a forest scene";
- backdrop, backcloth [Brit]
- Extraneous signals that can be confused with the phenomenon to be observed or measured
"they got a bad connection and could hardly hear one another over the background signals";
- background signal
- Relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation
"when the rain came he could hear the sound of thunder in the background"
- The state of the environment in which a situation exists
"The historical background helped explain current events";
- setting, scope
- (computing) activity on a computer not requiring user input
"The antivirus software runs in the background while you work"
- Understate the importance or quality of
"The politician tried to background his involvement in the scandal";
- play down, downplay
- Provide or form a background
"The artist backgrounded the portrait with a forest scene"
Derived forms: backgrounds, backgrounding, backgrounded
Type of: accent, accentuate, accompaniment, aspect, attendant, concomitant, co-occurrence, CRT screen, disturbance, emphasise [Brit], emphasize, environment, heritage, information, inheritance, interference, noise, panorama, prospect, punctuate, scene, scenery, screen, stress, view, vista
Antonym: foreground
Encyclopedia: Background