Screen - Definition and Overview

The term screen has a number of meanings:

• A window screen is a wire mesh that covers a window opening to keep out insects even when the window is open.

• Screen is also a synonym for film or movie as in the expression "Silver Screen" or the Screen Actors Guild, or as a verb as in "the movie was recently screened".

• A screen is also a viewing surface, such as a white surface (of cloth, or a wall) for slide and film projection, or the viewing surface of a cathode ray tube or liquid crystal display (LCD). See display device.

• A screen can be a transportable or permanently mounted panel or connected series of panels intended to obscure or hide the space behind it, used for visual privacy.

• In naval ship formations, a screen of small, fast ships (such as destroyers) is used to protect larger ships such as battleships and aircraft carriers from attack by similar ships, torpedo boats or submarines. The objective of the screening ships is to destroy attackers before they can approch within torpedo range of the larger ships.

• Screen-printing, or Silk-Screening is a method of printing and a screen is a piece of equipment used in this process.

• The verb screen is to examine something for defects or dangers.

• A genetic screen in genetics is a procedure or test to identify and select individuals that possess a particular kind of phenotype

• In a telecommunications, computing, or data processing system, to examine entities that are being processed to determine their suitability for further processing.

• It can also describe a nonferrous metallic mesh used to provide electromagnetic shielding.

• Screening can be to reduce undesired electromagnetic signals and noise by enclosing devices in electrostatic or electromagnetic shields.

• GNU screen is a computer program which multiplexes computer terminals.