What does "backgrounder" mean?

A briefing or document typically provided prior to a meeting or other event that gives basic details on subjects that are likely to be mentioned.

Backgrounder

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A briefing or document typically provided prior to a meeting or other event that gives basic details on subjects that are likely to be mentioned. US
"One of the President's aides gave us a ten-minute backgrounder on the dairy industry before the meeting."
2
a press conference or interview in which a government official explains to reporters the background of an action or policy wordnet
3
A person employed to draw backgrounds for a comic or cartoon.
"[…] backgrounders paint static background scenes, and then the animation components are layered on top […]"
4
A cattle farmer or rancher who runs a backgrounding operation.

"One of the President's aides gave us a ten-minute backgrounder on the dairy industry before the meeting."

From background + -er (agent noun suffix) or + -er (occupational suffix).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.