background

noun · adjective · verb

Simple meaning

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

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

bakgrownd

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈbækɡɹaʊnd

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

A person's social heritage: previous experience or training
“He is a lawyer with a sports background.”
A part of the picture that depicts scenery to the rear or behind the main subject; context.
Information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem
“The embassy filled him in on the background of the incident.”
Information relevant to the current situation about past events; history.
A less important feature of scenery (as opposed to foreground).
One's social heritage, or previous life; what one did in the past.

adjective

Less important or less noticeable in a scene or system.

verb

transitive
To increase the weight and immunity of (a calf) by feeding with forage and grains, as an intermediate stage in cattle production, between weaning and placement in a feedlot.
transitivefigurative
To put in a position that is not prominent.
transitive
To place in the background.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: A2 · Elementary
Frequency: Very Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

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

Used this way, background is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: Matter-of-fact
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

backcloth , rarer, so it draws attention
desktop , a specialist term, precise but narrower

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

How It’s Used

The word’s distinct uses, one example each.

Person's / socialnoun
“He is a lawyer with a sports background.”
Informationnoun
“The embassy filled him in on the background of the incident.”

More ways to use background

“He is a lawyer with a sports background.”noun
“The embassy filled him in on the background of the incident.”noun
“He posed her against a background of rolling hills.”noun

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Person's / social

family background

Information

historical backgroundbackground information

Ionizing

background radiation

Other combinations

background knowledgebackground noisebackground musiccultural background

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

backgroundernounInflected form
A press conference or interview in which a government official explains to reporters the background of an action or policy.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

background noisenounCompound term
Extraneous noise contaminating sound measurements that cannot be separated from the desired signal.
background processingnounCompound term
The execution of low priority programs while higher priority programs are not using the processing system.
background radiationnounCompound term
Radiation coming from sources other than those being observed.
background signalnounCompound term
Extraneous signals that can be confused with the phenomenon to be observed or measured.
background levelnounCompound term
The amplitude level of the undesired background noise.
background knowledgenounCompound term
Information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: person's social heritage

settinggroundscope

Antonyms

Sense: person's social heritage

foreground

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.