screen
/ˈskɹiːn/noun, verb
screen is spelled S-C-R-E-E-N: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears 71 times per million words in written English, the 1,486th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, screen means “A physical divider intended to block an area from view, or provide shelter from something dangerous” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of screen is screens.
How many letters and syllables are in screen?
| Letters | 6: S-C-R-E-E-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 71 times per million words; the 1,486th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is screen?
Screen appears 71 times per million words in written English, the 1,486th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce screen?
- /ˈskɹiːn/
- [ˈskɹ̈ʷɪi̯n]
Screen has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-screen.ogg, En-au-screen.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with screen?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as screen.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: censer.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of screen
- screens plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- screening participle, present
- screened participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does screen mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A physical divider intended to block an area from view, or provide shelter from something dangerous.
a fire screen
- 2
A 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.
- 3
A stand of trees or other plants that can block wind.
- 4
A military or nautical formation that blocks or separates; a collection of less-valuable vessels that travel with a more valuable one for the latter's protection.
- 5
A disguise; concealment.
- 6
A mesh layer in a window or doorway that lets in fresh air but keeps out pests.
- 7
A frame supporting a mesh of bars or wires used to classify fragments of stone by size, allowing the passage of fragments whose a diameter is smaller than the distance between the bars or wires.
- 8
The protective netting which protects the audience from flying objects
Jones caught the foul up against the screen.
verb
- 1
To filter by passing through a screen.
Mary screened the beans to remove the clumps of gravel.
- 2
To filter.
Passenger baggage was screened by X-ray to look for weapons.
- 3
To shelter or conceal.
- 4
To remove information, or censor intellectual material from viewing. To hide the facts.
The news report was screened because it accused the politician of wrongdoing.
- 5
To present publicly (on the screen).
The news report will be screened at 11:00 tonight.
- 6
To fit with a screen.
We need to screen this porch. These bugs are driving me crazy.
- 7
To examine patients or treat a sample in order to detect a chemical or a disease or to assess susceptibility to a disease.
- 8
To search chemical libraries by means of a computational technique in order to identify chemical compounds which would potentially bind to a given biological target such as a protein.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate screen?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of screen: mks.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Screen in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | paravent , écran |
| German | Schirm, Paravent, Sichtschutz , Bildschirm , Insektengitter, Fliegengitter |
| Portuguese | anteparo , tela, ecrã , filtro , filtrar , exibir |
| Spanish | mampara, pantalla, biombo , tamiz, malla, mosquitero |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does screen come from?
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”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).