big-screen

1 of 2

adjective

ˈbig-ˌskrēn 

1

: relating to movies or to the movie industry

She worked on the novel's big-screen adaptation.

Big-screen villains that resemble America's real-world enemies are as old as the movies themselves.

—Vanity Fair

2

: having a large screen

a big-screen television

And in my experience testing big-screen phones …, it really is far more difficult to do anything on them one-handed, including typing.

—John Gruber

big screen

2 of 2

noun

: the movie medium often as contrasted to television

a story adapted for the big screen

Synonyms

Noun

• film
• movie
• filmmaking
• silver screen
• pictures

Examples of big-screen in a Sentence

Noun

many actors now take roles for both television and the big screen

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

Now, their elders can put the same stuff on their big-screen TV with ease. —Brian Steinberg, Variety, 4 Aug. 2025

The first movie iteration of The War of the Worlds, starring Gene Barry, was released in 1958 and in 2005, Tom Cruise starred in a big-screen interpretation of Wells’ tale with Steven Spielberg in the director’s chair. —Tim Lammers, Forbes.com, 3 Aug. 2025

Noun

And Samsung’s One UI software really shines here with a taskbar, split-screen support, and app rescaling that makes Android on a big screen feel intuitive. —Shubham Yewale, PC Magazine, 6 Aug. 2025

His most recent big screen credit is Ari Aster’s Eddington, which debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. —Jake Kanter, Deadline, 25 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

1914, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun

1914, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for big-screen

• agin
• alkene
• allene
• ameen
• amin
• amine
• arene
• athene
• baleen
• beeline
• benzene
• between

Kids Definition

big screen

noun

: the motion-picture medium as contrasted to television