foreground.

1. The part of a scene or image that appears nearest the observer.

2. The most prominent or immediately attended part of an activity, issue or account.

3. To bring something into prominence or emphasize it for attention.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• foreground of a scene
• in the foreground

On the page

A damaged railing occupied the foreground of the scene.

The figure in the foreground partly concealed the distant entrance.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Singular foreground; plural foregrounds. Often uncountable in a scene. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: description, narrative analysis, characterization, contrast. Disciplines: literary analysis, prose writing, advanced general English. Commonness: moderately common. Third-person singular: foregrounds.