Overview vs. Background

Overview vs. Background — Is There a Difference?
ADVERTISEMENT

Difference Between Overview and Background

Overviewnoun

A brief summary, as of a book or a presentation.

Backgroundadjective

Less important in a scene.

background noise.

Overviewnoun

An inspection.

Backgroundnoun

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

The lawyer had a background in computer science.

Overviewverb

To engage in an overview; to provide a brief summary.

Backgroundnoun

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

ADVERTISEMENT

Overviewnoun

a general summary of a subject;

the treasurer gave a brief overview of the financial consequences

Backgroundnoun

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

Backgroundnoun

A 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.

Backgroundnoun

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

Backgroundnoun

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

The antivirus program is running in the background.

Backgroundverb

To put in a position that is not prominent.

ADVERTISEMENT

Backgroundverb

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

Backgroundnoun

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

he is a lawyer with a sports background

Backgroundnoun

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

he posed her against a background of rolling hills

Backgroundnoun

information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem;

the embassy filled him in on the background of the incident

Backgroundnoun

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

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

Backgroundnoun

relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation;

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

Backgroundnoun

the state of the environment in which a situation exists;

you can't do that in a university setting

Backgroundnoun

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

Backgroundnoun

scenery hung at back of stage

Backgroundverb

understate the importance or quality of;

he played down his royal ancestry