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background

noun
  1. scenery hung at back of stage
    backdrop
  2. (computer science) the area of the screen in graphical user interfaces against which icons and windows appear
    desktopscreen background
  3. a person's social heritage: previous experience or training
    “They are a lawyer with a sports background.”
  4. information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem
    “The embassy filled them in on the background of the incident.”
    background knowledge
  5. the part of a scene or picture ,that lies behind objects in the foreground
    “We posed them against a background of rolling hills.”
    ground
  6. relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation
    “When the rain came we 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”
    background signal
  8. the state of the environment in which a situation exists
    settingscope
verb
  1. to understate the importance or quality of
    “I unintentionally backgrounded the old data in my presentation.”
    play downdownplay