Environment vs. Background — What's the Difference?

The surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates

The part of a picture, scene, or design that forms a setting for the main figures or objects, or appears furthest from the viewer

The natural world, as a whole or in a particular geographical area, especially as affected by human activity

The circumstances or situation prevailing at a particular time or underlying a particular event

The totality of the natural world, often excluding humans

Form a background to

A subset of the natural world; an ecosystem

Provide with background

The combination of external physical conditions that affect and influence the growth, development, behavior, and survival of organisms

The ground or scenery located behind something.

The complex of social and cultural conditions affecting the nature of an individual person or community.

The part of a pictorial representation that appears to be in the distance and that provides relief for the principal objects in the foreground.

The general set of conditions or circumstances

The general scene or surface against which designs, patterns, or figures are represented or viewed.

The entire set of conditions under which one operates a computer, as it relates to the hardware, operating platform, or operating system.

A position, area, or situation that is not immediately in one's attention or notice

An area of a computer's memory used by the operating system and some programs to store certain variables to which they need frequent access.

(Computers) The environment in which programs operate that the user does not engage with directly

The surroundings of, and influences on, a particular item of interest.

The circumstances and events surrounding or leading up to an event or occurrence.

The natural world or ecosystem.

A person's experience, training, and education

All the elements that affect a system or its inputs and outputs.

The cultural or social environment in which a person was brought up or has lived

A particular political or social setting, arena or condition.

Subdued music played especially as an accompaniment to dialogue in a dramatic performance.

(computing) The software and/or hardware existing on any particular computer system.

Sound that intrudes on or interferes with an audio recording.

(programming) The environment of a function at a point during the execution of a program is the set of identifiers in the function's scope and their bindings at that point.

Low-level radiation, as from radioactive decay, that exists as part of the natural environment.

(computing) The set of variables and their values in a namespace that an operating system associates with a process.

Less important or less noticeable in a scene or system.

Act of environing; state of being environed.

One's social heritage, or previous life; what one did in the past.

That which environs or surrounds; surrounding conditions, influences, or forces, by which living forms are influenced and modified in their growth and development.

A part of the picture that depicts scenery to the rear or behind the main subject; context.

The totality of surrounding conditions;

Information relevant to the current situation about past events; history.

The area in which something exists or lives;

A less important feature of scenery (as opposed to foreground).

(computing) The image or color over which a computer's desktop items are shown (e.g. icons or application windows).

(computing) A type of activity on a computer that is not normally visible to the user.

(physics) background radiation

To put in a position that is not prominent.

(journalism) To gather and provide background information (on).

Ground in the rear or behind, or in the distance, as opposed to the foreground, or the ground in front.

The space which is behind and subordinate to a portrait or group of figures.

Anything behind, serving as a foil; as, the statue had a background of red hangings.

A place in obscurity or retirement, or out of sight.

The set of conditions within which an action takes place, including the social and physical conditions as well as the psychological states of the participants; as, within the background of the massive budget deficits of the 1980's, new spending programs had little chance of passage by the congress.

The set of conditions that precede and affect an action, such as the social and historical precedents for the event, as well as the general background{5}; as, against the background of their expulsion by the Serbs, the desire of Kosovars for vengeance is understandable though regrettable.

The signals that may be detected by a measurement which are not due to the phenomenon being studied, and tend to make the measurement uncertain to a greater or lesser degree.

An agreement between a journalist and an interviewee that the name of the interviewee will not be quoted in any publication, although the substance of the remarks may be reported; - often used in the phrase "on background". Compare deep background.

A person's social heritage: previous experience or training;

The part of a scene (or picture) that lies behind objects in the foreground;

Information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem;

Extraneous signals that can be confused with the phenomenon to be observed or measured;

Relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation;

The state of the environment in which a situation exists;

(computer science) the area of the screen in graphical user interfaces against which icons and windows appear

Scenery hung at back of stage

Understate the importance or quality of;