background music
Americannoun
-
music, often recorded, intended to provide a soothing background, usually played over loudspeaker systems in public places, as railway stations or restaurants.
-
music composed specifically to accompany and heighten the mood of a visual production, as a movie.
Etymology
Origin of background music
First recorded in 1925–30
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This is part of the background music in America: Americans who aren’t unemployed and do have a house are afraid that in the next few years they could lose their job, their security.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 11, 2025
Our expert content team has a way of sprinkling soothing magic on all of our Sleep Stories through the narrator's cadence to the background music to get people to lull to sleep.
From Salon • Nov. 8, 2024
For years, he had her toss the discus in practice to the background music of the Blue Danube Waltz.
From Los Angeles Times • May 13, 2024
In video posted online last week, a man who looks like Puello-Mota talks directly to the camera, speaking in English over background music and Russian subtitles and discussing a military operation.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 10, 2024
If any student objects to background music, you should not use it.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
