noun

• 1Extraneous sound which can be heard while listening to or monitoring other sounds.

  ‘the background noise overwhelms any dialogue’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The interview itself also had a distracting level of background noise.’
  • ‘The street background noise is very important in your two films.’
  • ‘It would have likely taken more money than the project had to get the background noise out of the soundtrack.’
  • ‘From the jocular background noise on Emmerson's cellphone, it's obvious they're enjoying themselves.’
  • ‘The performances are not always flawless, and there is some disturbing background noise.’
  • ‘A special sound consultant was brought in to both trace and eliminate background noise.’
  • ‘Effective use is made of natural light and background noise, with Melbourne itself adding enormously to character of the film.’
  • ‘Few of us today really know what silence is, and since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the level of background noise has been constantly rising.’
  • ‘These sleek, stainless steel cooling machines set a new standard for quiet operation, keeping kitchen background noise at a lower level than any other built-in refrigerators.’
  • ‘In many of the quieter scenes, there is a strange, persistent background noise that makes it sound like the entire flick was shot next to a busy freeway.’
  • ‘Some of the dialogue can be hard to hear because of the background noises or music.’
  • ‘Audiences are brought into the story by the realistic, everyday distraction of background noise, including a ringing phone and traffic.’
  • ‘If you have a bad location, with cramped, poorly lit rooms, with lots of background noise, it's unlikely that any learning will take place.’

  1. 1.1A person or thing considered to be irrelevant or incidental to the main issue or situation.
     ‘she is nothing but background noise in the story’
     More example sentences

     • ‘it's the basics that make our lives meaningful, the rest is just background noise’
     • ‘For most of the movie, she was just background noise, an opinionated woman who really didn't want to be there.’
     • ‘The famous guests simply serve as background noise to the proceedings.’
     • ‘The editorial pages - like the news pages - are the distracting background noise of everyday life.’
     • ‘To get it right, you've got to grant your reader some credit - don't try to pass off old background noise as news.’
     • ‘The only difference is the lengthening days, other than that the seasons are mere background noise to the horizontal trajectory of my research.’
     • ‘The thoughts and feelings of the broad masses are nothing but background noise, or the occasional fodder for pollsters.’
     • ‘The mortgage crisis was but background noise in your movie.’
     • ‘These events are merely background noise compared to the nuanced consideration of the personal lives and family history deeply imbedded within this chaos.’
     • ‘For the immigrants themselves, much of this rhetoric is just background noise.’
     • ‘Really, though, the wedding preparation is just background noise.’