How to spell background

hear itback·ground/'bæk,graʊnd/nounRules and real life

What it means: The part of a scene behind the main objects.

In a sentence: The painting has a bright blue sky in the background.

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as back ground or backround.

Same family: backgrounded, backgrounding, backgrounds, background (noun), background (adjective). If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Background originally comes from the noun meaning the part of a picture or scene that is farthest from the viewer. Over time, English speakers turned it into a verb meaning ‘to push something into the background’ or ‘to make it seem less important.’

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

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