Background
WordNet
noun
(1) Scenery hung at back of stage
(2) (computer science) the area of the screen in graphical user interfaces against which icons and windows appear
(3) A person's social heritage: previous experience or training
"He is a lawyer with a sports background"
(4) Information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem
"The embassy filled him in on the background of the incident"
(5) The part of a scene (or picture) that lies behind objects in the foreground
"He posed her against a background of rolling hills"
(6) Relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation
"When the rain came he could hear the sound of thunder in the background"
(7) 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"
(8) The state of the environment in which a situation exists
"You can't do that in a university setting"
verb
(9) Understate the importance or quality of
"He played down his royal ancestry"
WiktionaryText
Noun
- One's social heritage; what one did in the past/previously.
- The lawyer had a background in computer science.
- A part of the picture that depicts scenery to the rear or behind the main subject; context.
- Information relevant to the current situation about past events; history.
- A less important feature of scenery (as opposed to foreground.)
- There was tons of noise in the background.
- The photographer let us pick a background for the portrait.
- The image or color, over which a computer's desktop items are show (e.g. icons or application windows).
- Activity on a computer that is not normally visible to the user