FOREGROUND

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does foreground mean? 

• FOREGROUND (noun)
  The noun FOREGROUND has 2 senses:

1. the part of a scene that is near the viewer

2. (computer science) a window for an active application

  Familiarity information: FOREGROUND used as a noun is rare.

• FOREGROUND (verb)
  The verb FOREGROUND has 1 sense:

1. move into the foreground to make more visible or prominent

  Familiarity information: FOREGROUND used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FOREGROUND (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The part of a scene that is near the viewer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("foreground" is a kind of...):

aspect; panorama; prospect; scene; view; vista (the visual percept of a region)

Derivation:

foreground (move into the foreground to make more visible or prominent)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(computer science) a window for an active application

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("foreground" is a kind of...):

window ((computer science) a rectangular part of a computer screen that contains a display different from the rest of the screen)

Domain category:

computer science; computing (the branch of engineering science that studies (with the aid of computers) computable processes and structures)

Holonyms ("foreground" is a part of...):

CRT screen; screen (the display that is electronically created on the surface of the large end of a cathode-ray tube)

• FOREGROUND (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they foreground    ... he / she / it foregrounds   
Past simple: foregrounded   
Past participle: foregrounded   
-ing form: foregrounding   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move into the foreground to make more visible or prominent

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

foreground; highlight; play up; spotlight

Context example:

The introduction highlighted the speaker's distinguished career in linguistics

Hypernyms (to "foreground" is one way to...):

bring out; set off (direct attention to, as if by means of contrast)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Antonym:

background (understate the importance or quality of)

Derivation:

foreground (the part of a scene that is near the viewer)

 Context examples 

The particular character of the light magnification can reveal clues to the nature of the foreground star and any associated planets.

(Hubble Finds Planet Orbiting Pair of Stars, NASA)

Across the platform he swaggered, right up to Martin, and into the foreground of Martin's consciousness disappeared.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

When a star crosses precisely in front of a bright star in the background, the gravity of the foreground star focuses the light of the background star, making it appear brighter.

('Iceball' Planet Discovered Through Microlensing, NASA)

However, through the phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, a massive, foreground cluster of galaxies acts as a natural zoom lens in space by magnifying and stretching images of far more distant background galaxies.

(Massive Dead Disk Galaxy Challenges Theories of Galaxy Evolution, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The second picture contained for foreground only the dim peak of a hill, with grass and some leaves slanting as if by a breeze.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Gravity from a foreground, massive cluster of galaxies acts as a natural lens in space, bending and amplifying light.

(Hubble Uncovers the Farthest Star Ever Seen, NASA)

A yellow bar falling across the black foreground showed that the door was not quite closed, and one window in the upper story was brightly illuminated.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His broad, grizzled head, with its shining patch of baldness, was in the immediate foreground of our vision.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A number of foreground stars in our Milky Way can be seen in the image, identified by their diffraction spikes.

(Hubble Surveys Gigantic Galaxy, NASA)

First predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago, the warping of space by the gravity of a massive foreground object can brighten and distort the images of far more distant background objects.

(NASA's Great Observatories Team Up to Find Magnified and Stretched Image of Distant Galaxy, NASA)