background

«background» in Mova's school dictionary: the part behind the main things, furthest from you — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a background, backgrounds); adjective (background noise, background music)

meaning for a pupil

1) The background of a picture or scene is the part behind the main things, furthest from you. tree →

2) Your background is your family, your culture, where you come from, your education and experience. tree →

3) Background information is the facts you need to understand something. tree →

4) In the background means present but not the centre of attention: background music, background noise. tree →

sense in the lessons

In art lessons pupils draw the foreground, middle ground and background to show distance. In computers, the background is the picture on the screen or programs running «in the background». In history and reading, background helps you understand a story or event. In class, pupils come from many backgrounds and learn to respect them. Phrases: «in the background», «background noise», «family background», «background check».

examples

• The mountains are in the background of the painting. tree →
• Our class photo has the school in the background. tree →
• There was a lot of background noise in the café. tree →
• The teacher gave us some background on the war. tree →
• Children in our class come from many different backgrounds. tree →
• Soft music played in the background. tree →
• I changed the background on my tablet to a picture of my dog. tree →
• The app keeps running in the background. tree →
• Fortunately for him the demons did not see him, as the tree was in the background. tree →

note

Countable (a background, backgrounds), but «background information» is uncountable. Opposite of background in pictures: foreground. Online safety: be careful that photos and video calls do not show your address or school in the background.

In the corpora

• Small AI programs hide in everyday things, such as phone cameras that sharpen photos and blur backgrounds.
• Voice assistants turn sounds into words and then guess what you meant; accents and background noise can confuse them.
• Big flat brushes suit skies and backgrounds; small round brushes with a pointed tip suit details.
• Chameleons change colour mostly to show their mood and to warm up or cool down, not mainly to match the background.
• Octopuses are thought to be colour-blind, yet they match their background so well that scientists still argue about how.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «background» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.