background

• "he played down his royal ancestry"

Synonyms

• play downunderstate the importance or quality of
• downplayrepresent as less significant or important ; understate the importance or quality of

• "he is a lawyer with a sports background"

• "he posed her against a background of rolling hills"

Synonyms

• groundthe solid part of the earth's surface; a rational motive for a belief or action; the loose soft material that makes up a large part of the land surface; a relation that provides the foundation for something; a position to be won or defended in battle (or as if in battle); the part of a scene (or picture) that lies behind objects in the foreground; material in the top layer of the surface of the earth in which plants can grow (especially with reference to its quality or use); a relatively homogeneous percept extending back of the figure on which attention is focused ; a connection between an electrical device and a large conducting body, such as the earth (which is taken to be at zero voltage) ; (art) the surface (as a wall or canvas) prepared to take the paint for a painting ; the first or preliminary coat of paint or size applied to a surface ; fix firmly and stably; confine or restrict to the ground; place or put on the ground ; instruct someone in the fundamentals of a subject ; bring to the ground; hit or reach the ground ; throw to the ground in order to stop play and avoid being tackled behind the line of scrimmage ; hit a groundball; hit onto the ground ; cover with a primer; connect to a ground; use as a basis for

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

Synonyms

• background knowledgeinformation that is essential to understanding a situation or problem

• "they got a bad connection and could hardly hear one another over the background signals"

Synonyms

• background signalextraneous signals that can be confused with the phenomenon to be observed or measured

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

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

Synonyms

• settingthe context and environment in which something is set; the state of the environment in which a situation exists; arrangement of scenery and properties to represent the place where a play or movie is enacted ; the set of facts or circumstances that surround a situation or event; the physical position of something; a table service for one person; a mounting consisting of a piece of metal (as in a ring or other jewelry) that holds a gem in place
• scopean area in which something acts or operates or has power or control: "the range of a supersonic jet"; the state of the environment in which a situation exists; a magnifier of images of distant objects ; electronic equipment that provides visual images of varying electrical quantities

Synonyms

• desktopthe top of a desk ; (computer science) the area of the screen in graphical user interfaces against which icons and windows appear
• screen background(computer science) the area of the screen in graphical user interfaces against which icons and windows appear

Synonyms

• backdropscenery hung at back of stage
• backclothscenery hung at back of stage