screen
/ˈskɹiːn/
screen noun: a physical divider intended to block an area from view, or provide shelter from something dangerous. Also the ellipsis of screen pass.
Noun
screen (plural screens)
- A physical divider intended to block an area from view, or provide shelter from something dangerous.
- a fire screen
- Your leavy screens throw down.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- A dwarf wall or partition carried up to a certain height for separation and protection, as in a church, to separate the aisle from the choir, etc.
- A stand of trees or other plants that can block wind.
- A military or nautical formation that blocks or separates; a collection of less-valuable vessels that travel with a more valuable one for the latter's protection.
- A disguise; concealment.
- They'd say he was operating behind a screen of guilelessness and was a superhypocrite.1987, Saul Bellow, More Die of Heartbreak
- A mesh layer in a window or doorway that lets in fresh air but keeps out pests.
- A frame supporting a mesh of bars or wires used to classify fragments of stone by size, allowing the passage of fragments whose a diameter is smaller than the distance between the bars or wires.
- The protective netting which protects the audience from flying objects
- Jones caught the foul up against the screen.
- A stencil upon a framed mesh through which paint is forced onto printed-on material; the frame with the mesh itself.
- Searching through a sample for a target; an act of screening, or the method for it.
- a drug screen, a genetic screen
- A technique used to identify genes so as to study gene functions.
- A system intended to separate something into groups based on various criteria.
- The viewing surface or area of a movie or of a moving picture or slide presentation.
- The stories did not seem to me to touch life. […] They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
- A room in a cinema.
Show 6 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
- The informational viewing area of electronic devices, where output is displayed.
- You won't find me living for the screen […] I ain't equipment I ain't automatic1977, Sex Pistols, Spunk, “Problems” (song)
- One of the individual regions of a video game, etc. divided into separate screens.
- The idea is to reach the 21st level of an enormous network of interlocking screens, each of which is covered with blocks that you bounce along on.1988, Marcus Berkmann, Sophistry (video game review) in Your Sinclair issue 30, June 1988
- Bub and Bob, the brontosaur buddies, must battle bullies by bursting their bubbles. One or two players can move through 100 screens of arcade-style graphics.1989, Compute, volume 11, page 51
- The visualised data or imagery displayed on a computer screen.
- After you turn on the computer, the login screen appears.
- Clicking the Edit button sends you to a screen where you can change the name and description.
- An erection of white canvas or wood placed on the boundary opposite a batsman to make the ball more easily visible.
- An offensive tactic in which a player stands so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.
- Synonyms:
- pick
- A large scarf.
Verb
screen (third-person singular simple present screens, present participle screening, simple past and past participle screened)
- To filter by passing through a screen.
- Mary screened the beans to remove the clumps of gravel.
- To filter.
- Passenger baggage was screened by X-ray to look for weapons.
- To shelter or conceal.
- To remove information, or censor intellectual material from viewing. To hide the facts.
- The news report was screened because it accused the politician of wrongdoing.
- "It were dishonour in me to yield. I will not play the part of an impostor, whom my uncle must despise even while he screens. No; these estates are his right: let him take them; I will not buy them with his daughter's hand."1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Consent”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 153
- To present publicly (on the screen).
- The news report will be screened at 11:00 tonight.
- To fit with a screen.
- We need to screen this porch. These bugs are driving me crazy.
- To examine patients or treat a sample in order to detect a chemical or a disease or to assess susceptibility to a disease.
- To search chemical libraries by means of a computational technique in order to identify chemical compounds which would potentially bind to a given biological target such as a protein.
- To stand so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.
- Synonyms:
- pick
- To determine the source or subject matter of a call before deciding whether to answer the phone.
- A Phone to Screen Calls1987 April 7, Associated Press (story title as printed in New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/07/business/a-phone-to-screen-calls.html)
- If you screen your calls as a time management technique, try this message: I'm not near my phone right now, but I should be able to return calls after 3:30.2012 January 15, Essentials of Business Communication, →ISBN, page 343
Proper noun capitalized: Screen
Screen (plural Screens)
- A surname.
Also used as
screen is also the ellipsis of screen pass.
screen meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
screen in Hindi
- viewing area of electronic output device
- स्क्रीन skrīn
- movie viewing area
- स्क्रीन skrīn
screen in Urdu
- viewing area of electronic output device
- سْکْرِین skrīn
- movie viewing area
- سْکْرِین skrīn
screen in Bengali
- viewing area of electronic output device
- পর্দা porda
- movie viewing area
- স্ক্রীন skrin
- physical divider
- স্ক্রীন skrin
screen in Telugu
- viewing area of electronic output device
- తెర tera
More languagesFewer languages
- screen in Sanskrit
- वृणोति vṛṇoti
- screen in Assamese
- ইস্ক্ৰিন iskrin, ইস্কিন iskin, আঁৰ ãr, পৰ্দা porda
- screen in Arabic
- شَاشَة šāša, شاشة šeša, حِجَاب ḥijāb, سِتَارَة sitāra
- screen in Malay
- kelir, skrin
- screen in Indonesian
- layar, menayangkan
- screen in Thai
- หน้าจอ nâa-jɔɔ, จอ jɔɔ, จอภาพ jɔɔ-pâap, ฉาก chàak
- screen in Vietnamese
- màn, màn ảnh, màn hình
- screen in Myanmar
- ပြသရာ pra.sa.ra, တင်းထိမ် tang:htim, ခန်းဆီး hkan:hci:
Examples of screen in a sentence
- There is also great use of ambitious men in being screens to princes in matters of danger and envy1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Ambition”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
- The new phones can take pictures, screen calls and even make calls on their own.2018 October 10, “The Daily 202”, in The Washington Post:
Synonyms of screen
Forms of screen
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | screens |
| alternative form (obsolete) | skreen |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | screens |
| present participle | screening |
| past participle | screened |
| past | screened |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Screens |
Origin of screen
From Middle English scren, screne (“windscreen, firescreen”), from Anglo-Norman escren (“firescreen, the tester of a bed”), Old French escren, escrein, escran (modern French écran (“screen”)), from Middle Dutch scherm, from Old Dutch skirm, from Proto-West Germanic *skirmi, from Proto-Germanic *skirmiz (“fur, shelter, covering, screen”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut, divide”). Cognate with Dutch scherm (“screen”), German Schirm (“screen”). Doublet of scherm. An alternative etymology derives Old French escren, escran from Old Dutch *scranc (“barrier”) (compare Middle Dutch schranc, schranke (“palisade, trellis, grid”), German Schrank (“cupboard, cabinet”), German Schranke (“fence”)), from Proto-West Germanic *skrank, from Proto-Germanic *skrankaz.
English surname, from Old French escrin (“jewel case”); also from the noun screen.
Words formed from screen
- altar screen
- attract screen
- big screen
- black screen of death
- blue screen
- blue screen of death
- blue-white screen
- bug screen
- bullet-screen game
- Chinese screen
- choir screen
- clear view screen
- clothes screen
- digital on-screen graphic
- draught screen
- end screen
- ethical screen
- fire screen
- flatscreen
- flick-screen
- flip-screen
- fly screen
- focusing screen
- folding screen
- full screen
- green screen
- hand screen
- hand-screen
- home screen
- insect screen
- it's all over my screen
- it's all over the screen
- kill screen
- large-screen
- loading screen
- lock screen
- moving screen
- nag screen
- off-screen
- on-screen
- on someone's radar screen
- organ screen
- plasma screen
- platform screen door
- rood screen
- rood-screen
- screenaholic
- screenbound
- screen burn
- screen capture
- screen crunch
- screen door
- screen door on a submarine
- screen dump
- screen-free
- screen mask
- screen-matched
- screen memory
- screen motion capture
- screen name
Phrases with screen
- screen in
- screen off
- screen out
- screen grab
- screen neck
- screen pass
- screen peek
- screen play
- screen test
- screen time
- screen used
- screen wall
58 more phrasesFewer phrases
- silk screen
- Print Screen
- screen doors
- screen dumps
- screen grabs
- screen masks
- screen names
- screen peeks
- screen plays
- screen print
- screen saver
- screen share
- screen tests
- screen times
- screen walls
- screen wiper
- sight screen
- small screen
- smoke screen
- split screen
- third screen
- title screen
- touch screen
- screen passes
- screen peeked
- screen prints
- screen reader
- screen savers
- screen shared
- screen shares
- screen wipers
- second screen
- silver screen
- splash screen
- urinal screen
- window screen
- screen grabbed
- screen matched
- screen peeking
- screen readers
- screen sharing
- screen tearing
- screen captures
- screen grabbing
- screen memories
- screen of death
- screen printing
- screen scraping
- skeleton screen
- screen protector
- Stevenson screen
- screen protectors
- split screen shot
- silk screen effect
- split screen shots
- silk screen effects
- platform screen doors
- white screen of death
Words that rhyme with screen
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- between
- byzantine
- canteen
- greene
- preen
- Racine
- careen
- intervene
- lean
- wean
- Christine
- obscene
- routine
- skene
- spleen
- submarine
- cuisine
- gasoline
- irene
- red bean
- serene
- -ene
- baleen
- demean
- eleventeen
- fascine
- gombeen
- latrine
- pristine
- Qazvin
- sheen
- tangerine
- unclean
- unseen
- vaccine
- amine
- aquamarine
- Beane
- beseen
- bottine
- chopine
- Enigma machine
- Eugene
- gene
- in between
- internecine
- jean
- lien
Questions about screen
- What does screen mean?
- Screen means a physical divider intended to block an area from view, or provide shelter from something dangerous.
- What is screen in Hindi?
- Screen in Hindi is स्क्रीन (skrīn). See Screen meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use screen in a sentence?
- There is also great use of ambitious men in being screens to princes in matters of danger and envy
- What part of speech is screen?
- Screen can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce screen?
- Screen is pronounced /ˈskɹiːn/.
- What is the plural of screen?
- The plural of screen is screens.
Words near screen in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: screen (page history and authors); Screen (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-screen.ogg, en-au-screen.ogg.
Cite this entry: “screen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/screen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.