on-screen

adverb or adjective

variants or onscreen
1
: in a movie or a television program
But the makers of the 1958 movie understood that this most subtle of writers was telling a tale about the froth of life, and they celebrated it on-screen with gusto.Gerald Asher
The sixth-grader reportedly earned $1 million for starring in the upcoming My Girl, which pairs him with Anna Chlumsky for his first onscreen kiss.Alexander Tresniowski
2
: on a computer or television screen
You can watch a football game, see a small icon onscreen offering player statistics, click it with the remote, and view the stats.Edward W. Desmond
… handheld joysticks and gamepads that jolt and jar with the on-screen action.Leigh Gallagher

Examples of on-screen in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Soon however, surveillance images of US cities appear on-screen (recognizable in part by storefront signs for brands like Marshalls, M&M’s World, and Coca-Cola), implying that the audience, too, could become components of images to be segmented, categorized, and fed into AI training datasets. Farren Fei Yuan, Artforum, 1 Feb. 2026 But living up to the first movie’s legacy was quite the task, given the central couple spends barely any time together on-screen. Lincee Ray, Entertainment Weekly, 1 Feb. 2026 Angela is known for her confident, no-nonsense attitude and her sensual style, often seen on-screen in bikinis, or other tight, revealing and provocative outfits. Lori A Bashian, FOXNews.com, 1 Feb. 2026 Most recently, O’Hara is best known for portraying over-the-top actress and matriarch Moira Rose in the hit sitcom Schitt’s Creek opposite Eugene Levy, who played her husband, Johnny Rose, and her on-screen kids Dan Levy (David Rose) and Annie Murphy (Alexis Rose). Rachel McRady, PEOPLE, 31 Jan. 2026 See All Example Sentences for on-screen

Word History

First Known Use

1929, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of on-screen was in 1929

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Cite this Entry

“On-screen.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/on-screen. Accessed 7 Feb. 2026.

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