| Library / English Dictionary |
BACKGROUND
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Scenery hung at back of stage
Synonyms:
backcloth; backdrop; background
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("background" is a kind of...):
scene; scenery (the painted structures of a stage set that are intended to suggest a particular locale)
Sense 2
Meaning:
(computer science) the area of the screen in graphical user interfaces against which icons and windows appear
Synonyms:
background; desktop; screen background
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("background" is a kind of...):
CRT screen; screen (the display that is electronically created on the surface of the large end of a cathode-ray tube)
Domain category:
computer science; computing (the branch of engineering science that studies (with the aid of computers) computable processes and structures)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A person's social heritage: previous experience or training
Example:
he is a lawyer with a sports background
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("background" is a kind of...):
heritage; inheritance (any attribute or immaterial possession that is inherited from ancestors)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem
Example:
the embassy filled him in on the background of the incident
Synonyms:
background; background knowledge
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("background" is a kind of...):
information (knowledge acquired through study or experience or instruction)
Derivation:
backgrounder (a press conference or interview in which a government official explains to reporters the background of an action or policy)
Sense 5
Meaning:
The part of a scene (or picture) that lies behind objects in the foreground
Example:
he posed her against a background of rolling hills
Synonyms:
background; ground
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("background" is a kind of...):
aspect; panorama; prospect; scene; view; vista (the visual percept of a region)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation
Example:
when the rain came he could hear the sound of thunder in the background
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("background" is a kind of...):
accompaniment; attendant; co-occurrence; concomitant (an event or situation that happens at the same time as or in connection with another)
Derivation:
background (understate the importance or quality of)
Sense 7
Meaning:
Extraneous signals that can be confused with the phenomenon to be observed or measured
Example:
they got a bad connection and could hardly hear one another over the background signals
Synonyms:
background; background signal
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural events
Hypernyms ("background" is a kind of...):
disturbance; interference; noise (electrical or acoustic activity that can disturb communication)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "background"):
background noise; ground noise (extraneous noise contaminating sound measurements that cannot be separated from the desired signal)
background radiation (radiation coming from sources other than those being observed)
Sense 8
Meaning:
The state of the environment in which a situation exists
Example:
you can't do that in a university setting
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("background" is a kind of...):
environment (the totality of surrounding conditions)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "background"):
canvas; canvass (the setting for a narrative or fictional or dramatic account)
show window; showcase (a setting in which something can be displayed to best effect)
II. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they background ... he / she / it backgrounds
Past simple: backgrounded
Past participle: backgrounded
-ing form: backgrounding
Sense 1
Meaning:
Understate the importance or quality of
Example:
he played down his royal ancestry
Synonyms:
background; downplay; play down
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "background" is one way to...):
accent; accentuate; emphasise; emphasize; punctuate; stress (to stress, single out as important)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "background"):
wave off (dismiss as insignificant)
soft-pedal (play down or obscure)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Antonym:
foreground (move into the foreground to make more visible or prominent)
Derivation:
background (relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation)
Context examples:
The device also included a specialized filter to further block background noise in the images.
(Smartphone microscope detects nanoparticles and viruses, NIH)
Material stretches away from the blinding brightness of the galactic plane itself, becoming more clearly observable against the darker background of the cosmos.
(A Galaxy on the Edge, ESO)
Dust towers are massive, churning clouds that are denser and climb much higher than the normal background dust in the thin Martian atmosphere.
(Global Storms on Mars Launch Dust Towers Into the Sky, NASA)
More than 2000 London primary schoolchildren, from a range of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, were included in the study, which looked at their physical activity levels, body composition and socioeconomic status.
(Children who walk to school less likely to be overweight or obese, study suggests, University of Cambridge)
However, through the phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, a massive, foreground cluster of galaxies acts as a natural zoom lens in space by magnifying and stretching images of far more distant background galaxies.
(Massive Dead Disk Galaxy Challenges Theories of Galaxy Evolution, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Brightfield microscopy is a type of light microscopy in which objects are seen against a bright background.
(Brightfield Microscopy, NCI Thesaurus)
A partial congenic mouse with background strain of C57BL/6 and 129/Sv chimera, containing a heterozygous or homozygous p53 mutation.
(B6.129-Trp53tm1Brd N5, NCI Thesaurus)
The background of broncho-alveolar architecture remains detectable, and epithelial cells are usually single layered.
(Alveoli Epithelial Hyperplasia of the Mouse Pulmonary System, NCI Thesaurus/MMHCC)
The protocol usually also provides the background and rationale for the trial, but these could be represented in other protocol referenced documents.
(Clinical Study Protocol, NCI Thesaurus)
A record of a patient's medical background regarding cardiovasular disease.
(Cardiovascular History, NCI Thesaurus)
