DictionaryAI

screen

SKREEN/skɹiːn/

Pluralscreens

Verbscreens, screening, screened

29 meanings of screen

Practice

  1. 1
    display panelnouncountable
    The viewing area of an electronic device, where output is displayed.

    The laptop's screen dimmed to save battery.

    Thousands of fans watched the replay on the giant screens around the stadium.

    UsageThings appear on a screen (not incorrect: in the screen): on your screen, on screen.

    Similardisplay, monitor

  2. 2
    film and TVnoununcountable
    The world of film or television regarded as a medium, an art, or an industry, typically called the screen, the big screen, or the small screen.

    She made her name in the theater before moving to the screen in her forties.

    The novel has been adapted for the big screen three times, but never for television.

    UsageUsually the screen, the big screen or the small screen; before a noun, with a hyphen: a small-screen career.

    Similarfilm, cinema

    Note

    The industry is named after the surface its work is watched on, the screen in a movie theater. In use the word often carries a size: the big screen is the movies and the small screen is television, so an actor's big-screen debut is a first role in a movie.

  3. 3
    projection surfacenouncountable
    The surface or area onto which a movie, moving picture, or slide presentation is projected.

    The projector flickered before an image appeared on the screen.

    Old movie theaters had enormous screens that filled the wall.

    Note

    Before it belonged to the movies, the projection screen belonged to the slide show. In the American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1897), some stories feel like a stereopticon lecture, with characters about as lifelike as "the shadows on the screen". From this surface the word spread to the cinema auditorium and to the displays of electronic devices.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • Projection screens were used for slide shows before cinema. watsonfestival.org
    • Winston Churchill was an American novelist. en.wikipedia.org
    • Churchill wrote The Celebrity, first published in 1897. en.wikipedia.org
    • The novel's narrator compares stories to a stereopticon lecture and their characters to shadows, using the quoted wording. gutenberg.org
    • The cinema-auditorium sense developed by extension from the projection-surface sense. en.wiktionary.org
  4. 4
    show a filmverbtransitive
    To show a film or program publicly, especially in a theater or on television.

    The theater will screen the documentary next month.

    Organizers screened the film at three festivals before its release.

    UsageOften passive, with a time or place: screened at a festival. Where it could mean censored, shown or aired is clearer.

    Similarshow, air, broadcast, present

    Note

    Film and television turned the noun into a verb of exhibition. A film is screened at a festival, and a report will be screened at eleven tonight.

  5. 5
    check for diseaseverbtransitive
    To examine patients or test a sample in order to detect a disease or chemical, or to assess the risk of developing a disease.

    Hospitals screen pregnant women for gestational diabetes.

    The county lab screened every blood sample for traces of lead.

    Usagescreen someone for something: screen newborns for rare conditions.

    Similartest, examine

    Note

    Medical screening is aimed at people who show no signs yet. Its purpose is to find disease, exposure or susceptibility before symptoms appear.

  6. 6
    verbtransitive
    To vet people or items, such as job candidates, passengers, or baggage, to judge whether they are suitable, safe, or cleared to pass.

    Recruiters screen hundreds of applicants before sending a shortlist to the hiring manager.

    Every passenger was screened at the gate before boarding the overnight flight.

    Usagescreen out removes the unsuitable; screen for names what is sought: screen out weak applicants, bags screened for explosives.

    Similarvet, check, inspect

  7. 7
    nouncountable
    The data and imagery shown on a computer display at a given moment.

    The diagnostic screen displayed every sensor reading at once.

    After you enter your address, the next screen shows a summary of your order and the total cost.

    Similarview

    Note

    Software talks about screens the way a building talks about rooms: the login screen appears, and a button sends you to a screen where you can edit. This is the content, not the glass. It is distinct from the display itself, so one monitor shows many screens in turn, each usually named after its job.

  8. 8
    barrier panelnouncountable
    A panel, partition, or low wall used to divide a space, hide something from view, or give shelter.

    A bamboo screen separated the dining area from the kitchen.

    Firefighters used a metal screen to shield themselves from the flames.

    Note

    The oldest sense, and the one the others grow from. Middle English scren meant a windscreen or firescreen. It came through Anglo-Norman escren from Dutch, most likely from a Germanic word for "fur, shelter"; French kept it as écran. Shakespeare's "leavy screens" are leafy cover. Bacon in 1625 already makes people the screens, shielding princes "in matters of danger and envy", which leads toward the figurative cover.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

    • Middle English scren meant a windscreen or firescreen and came through Anglo-Norman escren. en.wiktionary.org
    • The proposed Germanic ancestor has the reconstructed meanings fur and shelter. en.wiktionary.org
    • French écran continues the Old French word. en.wiktionary.org
    • Shakespeare used the exact phrase leavy screens for leafy concealment. en.wikisource.org
    • Bacon describes people as protective screens for princes and uses the quoted words in matters of danger and envy. gutenberg.org
    • The Bacon passage was in print by 1625. en.wikipedia.org
  9. 9
    wire meshnoununcountable
    A material woven from fine wires, meant to stop animals or large particles from passing while letting gases, liquids, and finer particles through.

    The hardware store sells copper and aluminum screen by the foot.

    A layer of fine screen over the vent keeps squirrels out of the attic without blocking the airflow.

    Similarmesh

    Note

    Unlike the screens people stand behind or watch, this one is a material, and it is measured the way cloth is: copper screen, aluminum screen, a layer of fine screen, screen bought by the foot. Stretched on a frame, mesh like this becomes the stone-sorting sieve, and it is what the filtering verb pictures: matter passed through wire that holds back the large and lets the fine through.

  10. 10
    verbtransitive
    To shelter or conceal something by covering or shielding it from view or harm.

    Thick curtains screen the room from prying eyes.

    A tall fence screens the pool from the neighbors' view.

    UsageUsually screen something from view or from someone: a fence screens the pool from the neighbors.

    Similarshield, hide, conceal, shelter, protect

    Oppositeexpose, reveal

  11. 11
    nouncountable
    A test or search through a sample, or many samples, for a particular target, such as a drug, an infection, or the genes behind a trait.

    The lab ran a full screen for common allergens.

    Initial screens of the donor blood turned up no problems.

    UsageUsually with a word in front naming what is tested or tested for: a drug screen, a blood screen.

    Note

    Here the sorting mesh has become a metaphor. A test lets most of a sample pass and is meant to catch only what it is looking for.

  12. 12
    print stencilnouncountable
    A framed mesh holding a stencil, through which ink is forced onto the material being printed.

    The shop prepared a separate screen for every ink color.

    Ink is pushed through the screen onto the T-shirt below.

    Note

    In printing, the mesh carries an image. A stencil blocks part of the screen, and ink is forced through only the open areas onto fabric or paper. The word names both the stenciled mesh and the plain mesh on its frame, so a printer's screen is still a screen before any stencil goes on. This is the screen in screen printing.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The mesh carries the image, with a stencil blocking nonprinting areas so ink passes through the open areas onto fabric or paper. nationalgalleries.org
    • A printing screen includes mesh stretched over a frame; the bare frame alone is not the screen. metmuseum.org
    • A printing screen exists before the stencil is applied. vam.ac.uk
  13. 13
    nouncountable
    A fine mesh of wire or plastic stretched on a frame and set into a window or doorway, letting air through while keeping insects out.

    Dad lifted the screen out of the bedroom window and hosed off a summer's worth of dust and pollen.

    With the screen in place, we could leave the front door open all evening without a single mosquito getting in.

    Note

    The household object made from the wire mesh material: here the word names the whole fitted frame, not just the mesh. It is the screen in screen door and window screen, and the verb follows it, so a screened porch is one fitted with screens all round. Context usually keeps it apart from the display screens of phones and computers.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of screen apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

This word comes from Middle English scren, from Anglo-Norman escren (a firescreen), from Old French escren, which came through Middle Dutch scherm from Proto-Germanic *skirmiz ("fur, shelter, covering, screen") and ultimately Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ("to cut, divide"). It is related to Dutch scherm and German Schirm. An alternative account instead derives the Old French form from an Old Dutch word meaning "barrier."

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 8 facts

  • Screen comes through Middle English scren and Anglo-Norman escren, meaning a firescreen, from Old French. en.wiktionary.org
  • Old French escren is derived from Middle Dutch scherm. en.wiktionary.org
  • Middle Dutch scherm descends from Proto-Germanic *skirmiz through intervening Germanic forms. en.wiktionary.org
  • The reconstructed meanings of *skirmiz include fur, shelter, covering and screen. en.wiktionary.org
  • *Skirmiz is derived from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-, meaning to cut or divide. en.wiktionary.org
  • Dutch scherm belongs to the same etymological family. en.wiktionary.org
  • German Schirm belongs to the same etymological family. en.wiktionary.org
  • An alternative etymology derives the Old French form from a reconstructed Old Dutch word meaning barrier. en.wiktionary.org