screen
/ˈskɹiːn/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.85 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A material woven from fine wires intended to block animals or large particles from passing while allowing gasses, liquids and finer particles to pass.
Example Sentences
- "a fire screen"
- "Your leavy screens throw down."
- "There is also great use of ambitious men in being screens to princes in matters of danger and envy"
- "They'd say he was operating behind a screen of guilelessness and was a superhypocrite."
- "Jones caught the foul up against the screen."
- "a drug screen, a genetic screen"
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.