Word.ws English Dictionary

screen time

UK/ˈskɹiːn ˌtaɪ̯m/US/ˈskɹin ˌtaɪ̯m/

screen time noun: the duration for which something is visible on film or television.

Noun

screen time (countable and uncountable, plural screen times)

  1. The duration for which something is visible on film or television.
    • The wise old monk had little screen time compared with his buxom young disciple.
  2. The amount of time a person spends using screen-accessed technology (such as a television, a computer, a smartphone, etc.).
    • The editorial advised parents of small children to limit their kids' screen time.
    • In many families, children are getting more screen time than the parents think is good for them, although it's probably less than the children want.2016, Noël Janis-Norton, Calmer Easier Happier Screen Time, Hachette UK, →ISBN

Examples of screen time in a sentence

  • Every single parent I know frets about “screen time”, and most are engaged in a struggle with a toddler over how much iPad is allowed.2018 March 4, Jamie Bartlett, “Will 2018 be the year of the neo-luddite?”, in The Guardian:
  • And then there is the radical impact that screen time and social media have had on the younger generation, something that previous generations have never experienced.2023 June 13, Bernie Sanders, “America is facing a mental health crisis”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
  • Dad said on vacation we can have as much screen time as we want.2023, Sam Esmail, Rumaan Alam, Leave the World Behind, spoken by Rose:
  • Screen time for babies and toddlers under the age of two has been linked with long-term negative effects on health and quality of life and should be avoided, according to a landmark study.2026 June 27, Sally Weale, “Screen time can damage under-twos’ development, landmark study suggests”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Forms of screen time

pluralscreen times
alternative formscreentime

Questions about screen time

What does screen time mean?
Screen time means the duration for which something is visible on film or television.
How do you use screen time in a sentence?
Every single parent I know frets about “screen time”, and most are engaged in a struggle with a toddler over how much iPad is allowed.
What part of speech is screen time?
Screen time is a noun.
How do you pronounce screen time?
Screen time is pronounced /ˈskɹiːn ˌtaɪ̯m/ (UK).
What is the plural of screen time?
The plural of screen time is screen times.

Words near screen time in the dictionary

  1. screen shares
  2. screen sharing
  3. screen tearing
  4. screen test
  5. screen tests
  6. screen time
  7. screen times
  8. screen used
  9. screen wall
  10. screen walls
  11. screen wiper

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: screen time (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:

Cite this entry: “screen time.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/screen_time. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.