screen

American  

[skreen] / skrin /

noun

• screens
  plural

1. a movable or fixed device, usually consisting of a covered frame, that provides shelter, serves as a partition, etc.

2. a permanent, usually ornamental partition, as around the choir of a church or across the hall of a medieval house.

3. a specially prepared, light-reflecting surface on which motion pictures, slides, etc., may be projected.

4. Electronics. a surface on which electronically created images or text are displayed, as on a television, computer, mobile device, or radar receiver.

5. Digital Technology. frame.

6. motion pictures collectively or the motion-picture industry.

7. anything that shelters, protects, or conceals.

   a screen of secrecy; A screen of fog prevented our seeing the ship.

   Synonyms:

   shield, guard

8. a frame holding a mesh of wire, cloth, or plastic, for placing in a window or doorway, around a porch, etc., to admit air but exclude insects.

9. a sieve, riddle, or other meshlike device used to separate smaller particles or objects from larger ones, as for grain or sand.

10. a system for screening or grouping people, objects, etc.

11. Military. a body of troops sent out to protect the movement of an army.

12. Navy. a protective formation of small vessels, as destroyers, around or in front of a larger ship or ships.

13. Physics. a shield designed to prevent interference between various agencies.

    electric screen.

14. Electronics. screen grid.

15. Photography. a plate of ground glass or the like on which the image is brought into focus in a camera before being photographed.

16. Photoengraving. a transparent plate containing two sets of fine parallel lines, one crossing the other, used in the halftone process.

17. Sports.

    1. any of various offensive plays in which teammates form a protective formation around the ball carrier, pass receiver, shooter, etc.

    2. any of various defensive plays in which teammates conceal or block an opposing ball carrier, pass receiver, shooter, or the goal, basket, net, etc., itself.

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verb (used with object)

• screens,
  present (3rd person singular)
• screened,
  past participle,  past
• screening
  present participle

1. to shelter, protect, or conceal with or as if with a screen.

   Synonyms:

   mask, hide, shield, defend, veil

2. to select, reject, consider, or group (people, objects, ideas, etc.) by examining systematically.

   Job applicants were screened by the personnel department.

3. to provide with a screen or screens to exclude insects.

   He screened the porch so they could enjoy sitting out on summer evenings.

4. to sift or sort by passing through a screen.

5. to project (a motion picture, slide, etc.) on a screen.

6. Movies.

   1. to show (a motion picture), especially to an invited audience, as of exhibitors and critics.

   2. to photograph with a motion-picture camera; film.

   3. to adapt (a story, play, etc.) for presentation as a motion picture.

7. to lighten (type or areas of a line engraving) by etching a regular pattern of dots or lines into the printing surface.

verb (used without object)

• screens,
  present (3rd person singular)
• screened,
  past participle,  past
• screening
  present participle

1. to be projected on a motion-picture screen.

screen British  

/ skriːn /

noun

1. a light movable frame, panel, or partition serving to shelter, divide, hide, etc

2. anything that serves to shelter, protect, or conceal

3. a frame containing a mesh that is placed over a window or opening to keep out insects

4. a decorated partition, esp in a church around the choir See also rood

5. a sieve

6. a system for selecting people, such as candidates for a job

7. the wide end of a cathode-ray tube, esp in a television set, on which a visible image is formed

8. a white or silvered surface, usually fabric, placed in front of a projector to receive the enlarged image of a film or of slides

9. the film industry or films collectively

10. photog a plate of ground glass in some types of camera on which the image of a subject is focused before being photographed

11. printing a glass marked with fine intersecting lines, used in a camera for making half-tone reproductions

12. men or ships deployed around and ahead of a larger military formation to warn of attack or protect from a specific threat

13. sport a tactical ploy in which a player blocks an opponent's view

14. psychoanal anything that prevents a person from realizing his true feelings about someone or something

15. electronics See screen grid

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verb

1. (sometimes foll by off) to shelter, protect, or conceal

2. to sieve or sort

3. to test or check (an individual or group) so as to determine suitability for a task, etc

4. to examine for the presence of a disease, weapons, etc

   the authorities screened five hundred cholera suspects

5. to provide with a screen or screens

6. to project (a film) onto a screen, esp for public viewing

7. (intr) to be shown at a cinema or on the television

8. printing to photograph (a picture) through a screen to render it suitable for half-tone reproduction

9. sport to block the view of (an opposing player)

screen Scientific  

/ skrēn /

1. The surface on which an image is displayed, as on a television, computer monitor, or radar receiver.

2. An electrode placed between the plate (anode) and the control grid in a tetrode valve, used to reduce the capacitance between the grid and the plate, increasing its ability to respond to high frequencies, especially radio frequencies.

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Synonym Usage

See cover.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• screener
  noun
• screenful
  noun
• superscreen
  noun
• rescreen
  verb (used with object)
• screenable
  adjective
• screenless
  adjective
• screenlike
  adjective
• unscreenable
  adjective
• unscreened
  adjective
• well-screened
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• screens
  plural

Participles

• screening
  present
• screened
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• screen
  simple
• screens
  simple
• have screened
  perfect
• has screened
  perfect
• am screening
  progressive
• are screening
  progressive
• is screening
  progressive
• have been screening
  perfect progressive
• has been screening
  perfect progressive

Past

• screened
  simple
• had screened
  perfect
• was screening
  progressive
• were screening
  progressive
• had been screening
  perfect progressive

Future

• will screen
  simple
• will have screened
  perfect
• will be screening
  progressive
• will have been screening
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of screen

1350–1400; Middle English screne (noun) < Anglo-French; Old French escren ( French écran ) < Frankish *skrank, cognate with Old High German scrank barrier ( German Schrank cupboard)

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

screen screens screened screening

Traditional financial institutions are subject to regulations that require them to screen for and report potential money-laundering activity.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2026

The late, great Hollywood screen writer William Goldman once famously said of his industry, “Nobody knows anything. … Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work.”

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026

While they’re meant to be in love, their screen chemistry feels closer to roommates.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026

But whatever the verdict, it marks a major cultural moment for India, bringing a story loved for generations to the big screen on an unprecedented scale.

From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026

The big screen at the stadium shows the Phanatic playing peek-a-boo with a cute little kid.

From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison

Here’s a deep dive into the Dividend Aristocrats, including two screens of this group of 68 stocks.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026

Their eyeballs are where kids’ eyeballs always are: on screens.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026

“The stuff we can do with rigs and green screens is amazing, but when you’re in a forest surrounded by orcs it feels like, ‘Oh my God, how did I get this golden ticket?’

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026

As the evening progressed the screens filled up as public order units were deployed to more and more places.

From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026

I had a thousand questions, but mostly, in this snowy, hushed world, only our screens between us, I wanted to know one thing.

From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows

We screened the components of the Russell 1000 Value Index by looking at forward price-to-earnings ratios, based on consensus 12-month earnings-per-share estimates among analysts polled by FactSet.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 28, 2026

One issue during testing was that 17% of people who were initially screened had to be excluded because Moderna didn’t get enough of a tumor sample to customize its shot.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026

By Monday evening, footage of the protests had made its way into his stump speech for embattled Sen. Roger Marshall in Kansas, where video clips had already been screened for rallygoers.

From Salon ● Oct. 22, 2026

I’ve had both of the movies that I’ve done in my life screened at the DGA and I’ve never seen them look better or sound better.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2026

Although Rocinante was screened the flies got in in their millions and hid in corners and would not be dislodged.

From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck

The lower level contains an incredibly versatile room that’s currently used as a gym, but could also be well-suited to serve as a screening room, game room, or even an additional bedroom.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 4, 2026

Click your remote control and you have an 11-foot-wide image on a white wall — a sort of private screening room.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2026

In the UK, routine NHS breast screening is not automatically offered to 40-year-olds, as standard invitations begin at 50.

From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026

Bancel envisions government screening campaigns to help find people with the condition and an annual pharmacy shot for those with the syndrome.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026

I was only there because Lucas Cader had convinced me that it was a sure way of seeing Ada Taylor, who was becoming increasingly skilled at avoiding me and screening my phone calls.

From "Where Things Come Back" by John Corey Whaley

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