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green screen

American

[green skreen] / ˈgrin ˌskrin /

noun

Movies, Television.

an electronic special-effects system, commonly used in television weather forecast segments, that isolates and removes a static plain green background from the live foreground shot so that the background can be filled or replaced with another image or video in a composite with the foreground.

Etymology

Origin of green screen

First recorded in 1980–85

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Zheng recorded himself in front of a green screen and then asked the software to modify his face to make him into all the different characters in the movie.

From Barron's • Mar. 10, 2026

"You will watch this thinking a lot of money's been spent on green screen," the 44-year-old says.

From BBC • Dec. 5, 2025

He hung up a green screen and, after determining that he didn’t yet have the broadcasting chops to rant on command, started writing scripts.

From Slate • Feb. 18, 2025

Rather, it’s a green screen set up in the Los Angeles home of Drew Talbert and his wife, Andrea Kelley.

From New York Times • Nov. 26, 2024

The empty green screen stared back at him; he saw himself in its curved glass, a story as still as the others had been antic.

From "Typical American" by Gish Jen

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023