background

nouns

a person's social heritage: previous experience or training
"he is a lawyer with a sports background"
background
is a type of (narrower)
any attribute or immaterial possession that is inherited from ancestors
"my only inheritance was my mother's blessing"; "the world's heritage of knowledge"
heritage, inheritance
the part of a scene (or picture) that lies behind objects in the foreground
"he posed her against a background of rolling hills"
background, ground
information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem
"the embassy filled him in on the background of the incident"
background, background knowledge
is derived from
backgrounder
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, background signal
relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation
"when the rain came he could hear the sound of thunder in the background"
background
is a type of (narrower)
an event or situation that happens at the same time as or in connection with another
accompaniment, attendant, co-occurrence, concomitant
the state of the environment in which a situation exists
"you can't do that in a university setting"
background, scope, setting
(computer science) the area of the screen in graphical user interfaces against which icons and windows appear
background, desktop, screen background
scenery hung at back of stage
backcloth, backdrop, background

verbs

understate the importance or quality of
"he played down his royal ancestry"
background, downplay, play down
antonym
foreground