How to use background in a sentence
40 example sentences · adjective, noun, verb
Background means less important or less noticeable in a scene or system. Example: “The antivirus program runs on a background thread.”
Examples of background by meaning
adjectiveLess important or less noticeable in a scene or system.
- The antivirus program runs on a background thread.
nounOne's social heritage, or previous life; what one did in the past.
- The lawyer had a background in computer science.
nounA part of the picture that depicts scenery to the rear or behind the main subject; context.
- Many insects probably use this strategy, which is a close analogy to crypsis in the visible world — camouflage and other methods for blending into one’s visual background.2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, archived from the original on 06...
nounA 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.
nounA type of activity on a computer that is not normally visible to the user.
- The antivirus program is running in the background.
verbTo put in a position that is not prominent.
- In all the other sentences, one receives more focus, while the other is backgrounded.2006, Paul Baker, Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis, page 163
More sentences with background
- The steady tick of the clock provided a comforting background for the conversation.From the entry tick
- The juxtaposition of the bright yellows on the dark background made the painting appear three dimensional.From the entry juxtaposition
- She's scrubbing her social media accounts before the background check begins.From the entry scrub
- His mother provided some relevant background information concerning his medical condition.From the entry relevant
- He came from a very uptight religious background, but you wouldn't know that now!From the entry uptight
- Wikipedia items featuring books usually outline them after giving their background.From the entry outline
- The government began the institutionalization of background checks for internet users.From the entry institutionalization
- The government began the deinstitutionalization of background checks for certain Federal jobs.From the entry deinstitutionalization
- I'm in trouble now. They published what I gave them on background.From the entry on background
- We need to go into the background of the case before jumping to conclusions.From the entry go into
- His background in the military gave him a running start in his engineering career.From the entry running start
- Background EEG demonstrates an admixture of theta and delta waves.From the entry admixture
- The radio was playing in the background.From the entry play
- Some kind of lounge music was playing in the background.From the entry play
- Your background and experiences must give you a unique weltanschauung.From the entry weltanschauung
- Hugo had a recording of someone playing the chimes against a background of surf noise that she found calming.From the entry chime
- Even if you supported the socialist regime, your class background often meant you were going to get the treatment regardless.From the entry treatment
- The install takes a long time, but you can run it in the background while working on other things.From the entry install
- The board of the company was decidedly disparate, with no two members from the same social or economic background.From the entry disparate
- Upon touring the mine, they found it to be a veritable canyon with some monstrous Cats trundling in the background.From the entry cat
- She uses a round brush to lay in the background.From the entry lay in
- He listened to music on his media player while he worked out on the treadmill: a classic use of background fodder.From the entry background fodder
- Her doctoral thesis concerned the origins of the cosmic background.From the entry cosmic background
- A TV commercial blared in the background, repeating the brand's catchphrase: "This is not your father's Oldsmobile — this is the new generation of Olds!"From the entry Oldsmobile
- In contrast with modern sleek, corporate websites, the Neocities platform allows users to create personal webpages reminiscent of the Old Web featuring tiled backgrounds, animated GIFs, guestbooks, and simple HTML.From the entry old web
- This book is aimed at any interested intelligent person, typically one with little background in syntax research.2025, Edward A. F. Gibson, “Introduction” (chapter 1), in Syntax: A Cognitive Approach, MIT Press, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 18–19. From the entry first principles
- Prerendered backgrounds were disfavoured in action games due to the disorientative effects of shifting fixed camera perspectives.2025 December 17, Fenrick, 18:36 from the start, in Were 3D Games a Downgrade? (YouTube). From the entry disorientative
- All of the people I interviewed were from Protestant backgrounds, with proud British traditions.2024 February 10, Emma DeSouza, “The most effective cure for Northern Irish unionism? Attitudes in England”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry mainland
- Magic could hear some celebrating in the background of the transmission.2024 August 20, M.P. Woodward, Tom Clancy Shadow State, Hachette UK, →ISBN. From the entry pocket protector
- “You’ll often find prompt engineers come from a history, philosophy, or English language background, because it’s wordplay.2023 March 29, Conrad Quilty-Harper, “$335,000 Pay for ‘AI Whisperer’ Jobs Appears in Red-Hot Market”, in Bloomberg. From the entry AI whisperer
- One can enter Swiftiedom at any level: avocation or vocation, background music or full-time job.2023 October 12, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, “My Delirious Trip to the Heart of Swiftiedom”, in The New York Times. From the entry Swiftiedom
- With your background in JFK and Hendrix detectiving, I think you would have a good chance.2022 September 4, Greg Parker, “Robbie Robertson Hosts Vince Palamara”, in alt.conspiracy.jfk (Usenet). From the entry detectiving
- Its leaders tend to be men and women from wealthy backgrounds.2021 January 30, Nick Cohen, “Anti-vaxxers posing as victims has a history. Look at Andrew Wakefield”, in The Guardian. From the entry anti-vax
Meaning of background
- adjective Less important or less noticeable in a scene or system.
- noun One's social heritage, or previous life; what one did in the past.
- noun A part of the picture that depicts scenery to the rear or behind the main subject; context.
Questions about background in a sentence
- How do you use background in a sentence?
- Background is used as an adjective, noun and verb. For example: “The antivirus program runs on a background thread.”
- What is a short sentence with background?
- “The radio was playing in the background.”
- What does background mean?
- Background means less important or less noticeable in a scene or system.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: background (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use background in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/background. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
