English dictionary



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English noun: background

1. background (attribute) a person's social heritage: previous experience or training


SamplesHe is a lawyer with a sports background.


Broader (hypernym)heritage, inheritance

2. background (cognition) the part of a scene (or picture) that lies behind objects in the foreground


SamplesHe posed her against a background of rolling hills.


Synonymsground


Broader (hypernym)aspect, panorama, prospect, scene, view, vista

3. background (cognition) information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem


SamplesThe embassy filled him in on the background of the incident.


Synonymsbackground knowledge


Broader (hypernym)information

4. background (event) extraneous signals that can be confused with the phenomenon to be observed or measured


SamplesThey got a bad connection and could hardly hear one another over the background signals.


Synonymsbackground signal


Broader (hypernym)disturbance, interference, noise


Narrower (hyponym)background noise, background radiation, ground noise

5. background (event) relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation


SamplesWhen the rain came he could hear the sound of thunder in the background.


Broader (hypernym)accompaniment, attendant, co-occurrence, concomitant

6. background (state) the state of the environment in which a situation exists


SamplesYou can't do that in a university setting.


Synonymsscope, setting


Broader (hypernym)environment


Narrower (hyponym)canvas, canvass, show window, showcase

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


Synonymsdesktop, screen background


Broader (hypernym)CRT screen, screen


Domain categorycomputer science, computing

8. background (artifact) scenery hung at back of stage


Synonymsbackcloth, backdrop


Broader (hypernym)scene, scenery


English verb: background

1. background (change) understate the importance or quality of


SamplesHe played down his royal ancestry.


Synonymsdownplay, play down


Pattern of useSomebody ----s something.
Something ----s something


Broader (hypernym)accent, accentuate, emphasise, emphasize, punctuate, stress


Narrower (hyponym)soft-pedal, wave off


Antonymsforeground, highlight, play up, spotlight









Based on WordNet 3.0 copyright © Princeton University.
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