Definitions for background
ˈbækˌgraʊndback·ground

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:5.0 / 2 votes

1. backgroundnoun

   a person's social heritage: previous experience or training

   "he is a lawyer with a sports background"

2. background, groundnoun

   the part of a scene (or picture) that lies behind objects in the foreground

   "he posed her against a background of rolling hills"

3. background, background knowledgenoun

   information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem

   "the embassy filled him in on the background of the incident"

4. background, background signalnoun

   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"

5. backgroundnoun

   relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation

   "when the rain came he could hear the sound of thunder in the background"

6. setting, background, scopenoun

   the state of the environment in which a situation exists

   "you can't do that in a university setting"

7. background, desktop, screen backgroundnoun

   (computer science) the area of the screen in graphical user interfaces against which icons and windows appear

8. backdrop, background, backclothverb

   scenery hung at back of stage

9. background, play down, downplayverb

   understate the importance or quality of

   "he played down his royal ancestry"

WiktionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. backgroundnoun

   One's social heritage; what one did in the past/previously.

   The lawyer had a background in computer science.

2. backgroundnoun

   A part of the picture that depicts scenery to the rear or behind the main subject; context.

3. backgroundnoun

   Information relevant to the current situation about past events; history.

4. backgroundnoun

   A less important feature of scenery (as opposed to foreground.)

5. backgroundnoun

   The image or color, over which a computer's desktop items are show (e.g. icons or application windows).

6. backgroundnoun

   Activity on a computer that is not normally visible to the user

   The antivirus program is running in the background.

7. backgroundverb

   To put in a position that is not prominent

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. background

   Background refers to the conditions or circumstances that form the setting or environment for an event, person, or situation. It can also refer to the part of an image or scene behind the main objects or people in view. In other contexts, background can describe a person's previous experiences, education, or training.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Backgroundnoun

   ground in the rear or behind, or in the distance, as opposed to the foreground, or the ground in front

2. Backgroundnoun

   the space which is behind and subordinate to a portrait or group of figures

3. Backgroundnoun

   anything behind, serving as a foil; as, the statue had a background of red hangings

4. Backgroundnoun

   a place in obscurity or retirement, or out of sight

The New Hacker's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. background

   [common] To do a task in background is to do it whenever foreground matters are not claiming your undivided attention, and to background something means to relegate it to a lower priority. “For now, we'll just print a list of nodes and links; I'm working on the graph-printing problem in background.” Note that this implies ongoing activity but at a reduced level or in spare time, in contrast to mainstream ‘back burner’ (which connotes benign neglect until some future resumption of activity). Some people prefer to use the term for processing that they have queued up for their unconscious minds (a tack that one can often fruitfully take upon encountering an obstacle in creative work). Compare amp off, slopsucker.Technically, a task running in background is detached from the terminal where it was started (and often running at a lower priority); oppose foreground. Nowadays this term is primarily associated with Unix, but it appears to have been first used in this sense on OS/360.

Matched Categories

1. • Accompaniment
   • Computer Science
   • Environment
   • Heritage
   • Noise
   • Screen
   • View

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'background' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #1709

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'background' in Written Corpus Frequency: #1685

3. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'background' in Nouns Frequency: #678

How to pronounce background?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say background in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of background in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of background in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of background in a Sentence

1. Cameron Shore:

   Just being able to move around and pick out a particular sound or a particular thing to watch, I find it to be more focusing than anything else, i actually have a lot of difficulty calming down in New York City, with all the background noise and just everything that's going on. It's a nice time to come out and spend an hour or two kind of in silence.

2. Timothy Salyer:

   We didn't write it, we didn't do any of the investigations. We did none of the background.

3. Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele:

   The family with a lot of resources that has a strong educational background ... is going to raise concerns earlier and is going to push for a referral, whereas the family without those resources won't necessarily push, or be in a position to push in the same way.

4. Patrick Register:

   I have this forum that’s letting women of no filter — every age, race background, family, no family — I’m able to have these back and forth, one-on-one conversations and I’m getting amazing things.

5. Michael Zinberg:

   The background of stand-up is when I sit down on Monday for a reading and there’s a great line, I want to do it that night, i do n’t want to wait until Friday. I was afraid we ’d over-rehearse it and it would lose that immediacy … We ’d read the script and I ’d say to Writer Michael Zinberg, ‘ I know where I can put that and that, ’ so I really have to learn are these three pages. Actors are famous for that. Brando did it. We tried an ear piece, but it was read by an assistant director, and he was totally emotionless. There was no spark in his voice so it did n’t work.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=background
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Background
3. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
4. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/background
5. ^ The New Hacker's Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3008/3008-h/3008-h.htm#Background