Foreground

noun, verb

noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The elements of an image which lie closest to the picture plane.

    "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. 2
    (computer science) a window for an active application wordnet
  3. 3
    The subject of an image, often depicted at the bottom in a two-dimensional work.
  4. 4
    the part of a scene that is near the viewer wordnet
  5. 5
    The application the user is currently interacting with; the application window that appears in front of all others. attributive, often
Verb
  1. 1
    To place in the foreground (physically or metaphorically).

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

  2. 2
    move into the foreground to make more visible or prominent wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
highlightanteriorityapproachapproximationbold frontbrave face

Example

More examples

"The couch is in the foreground next to the table."

Etymology

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

Related phrases

picture planetwo dimensional

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