background (noun)

a person's social heritage: previous experience or training

"he is a lawyer with a sports background"

background, ground (noun)

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

"he posed her against a background of rolling hills"

background, background knowledge (noun)

information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem

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

background, background signal (noun)

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 (noun)

relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation

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

setting, background, scope (noun)

the state of the environment in which a situation exists

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

background, desktop, screen background (noun)

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

backdrop, background, backcloth (verb)

scenery hung at back of stage

background, play down, downplay (verb)

understate the importance or quality of

"he played down his royal ancestry"

background (Noun)

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

background (Noun)

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

background (Noun)

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

background (Noun)

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

background (Noun)

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

background (Noun)

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

background (Verb)

To put in a position that is not prominent