screen
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "screen", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "screen" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "screen" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
screen is aEnglishnoun. It means: A physical divider intended to block an area from view, or provide shelter from something dangerous. Pronounced /skɹiːn/. It ranks #1,501 in English word frequency. Often confused with seen and screw.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | screen |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /skɹiːn/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #1,501 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 15 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for screen is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /skɹiːn/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,501 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 18 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for screen, with forms such as "csreen", "sccreen", and "sceren". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 15 confusable-pair relationships, "seen", "screw", "spree", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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 … Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is screen, spelled S-C-R-E-E-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A physical divider intended to block an area from view, or provide shelter from something dangerous.
- 2A material woven from fine wires intended to block animals or large particles from passing while allowing gasses, liquids and finer particles to pass.
- 3A material woven from fine wires intended to block animals or large particles from passing while allowing gasses, liquids and finer particles to pass.
- 4A material woven from fine wires intended to block animals or large particles from passing while allowing gasses, liquids and finer particles to pass.
- 5Searching through a sample for a target; an act of screening, or the method for it.
- 6Searching through a sample for a target; an act of screening, or the method for it.
- 7Various forms or formats of information display
- 8Various forms or formats of information display
- 9Various forms or formats of information display
- 10Various forms or formats of information display
- 11Various forms or formats of information display
- 12A disguise; concealment.
- 13Definitions related to standing in the path of an opposing player
- 14Definitions related to standing in the path of an opposing player
- 15An erection of white canvas or wood placed on the boundary opposite a batsman to make the ball more easily visible.
- 16A collection of less-valuable vessels that travel with a more valuable one for the latter's protection.
- 17A 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.
- 18A large scarf.
Etymology
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.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: csreen,sccreen,sceren,screenn,scren,screne,scrreen,srceen,sscreen
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for screen
Misspelling Variants of "screen"
Frequency rank: #1,501 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: