foreground

English

Etymology

From fore- +‎ ground. Compare Dutch voorgrond (“foreground”), German Vordergrund (“foreground”), Danish forgrund (“foreground”), Swedish förgrund (“foreground”), Norwegian forgrunn (“foreground”), Icelandic forgrunni (“foreground”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔː(ɹ)ˌɡɹaʊnd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

foreground (plural foregrounds)

1. The elements of an image which lie closest to the picture plane.
   • 2006, Mark Chalkley, Hampden-Woodberry:

     Note the presence in the foreground of the fronds of ailanthus, often called “ghetto palm,” now ubiquitous in Baltimore but apparently already common in the 1930s.

2. The subject of an image, often depicted at the bottom in a two-dimensional work.
3. (computing, often attributive) The application the user is currently interacting with; the application window that appears in front of all others.

Derived terms

• foregroundable
• foregrounder

Related terms

• background
• midground

Translations

the elements of an image which lie closest to the picture plane

• Bulgarian: пре́ден план m (préden plan)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 前景 (zh) (qiánjǐng)

• Czech: popředí (cs) n
• Dutch: voorgrond (nl) m
• Finnish: etuala, edusta (fi)
• French: premier plan (fr) m, avant-plan (fr) m
• German: Vordergrund (de) m
• Greek: προσκήνιο (el) n (proskínio)
• Hungarian: előtér (hu)
• Italian: primo piano m
• Japanese: 前景 (ja) (ぜんけい, zenkei)
• Korean: 전경(前景) (ko) (jeon'gyeong)
• Portuguese: primeiro plano m
• Romanian: prim plan (ro) n
• Russian: пере́дний пла́н m (perédnij plán)
• Spanish: primer plano m
• Swedish: förgrund (sv) c
• Ukrainian: пере́дній пла́н m (perédnij plán)
• Walloon: divant-plan (wa) m

Verb

foreground (third-person singular simple present foregrounds, present participle foregrounding, simple past and past participle foregrounded)

1. To place in the foreground (physically or metaphorically).

   Synonym: highlight

   • 2019 October 31, A. A. Dowd, “Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro reunite for one last gripping crime epic, The Irishman”, in AV Club‎^[1], archived from the original on 21 August 2020:

     Right from the start, The Irishman foregrounds the looming inevitability of death.

   • 2021 July 29, Mike Hale, “Review: ‘The Pursuit of Love’ Against All Odds”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     Things that were implicit and largely unjudged in the book, filtered through layers of stiff-upper-lip irony — Fanny’s self-pity, Linda’s obliviousness — are now foregrounded and, for the most part, rendered banal, with “Beaches”-level platitudes and sentimentality.

Translations

to place in the foreground (physically or metaphorically)

• Hungarian: előtérbe helyez/állít, kiemel (hu)