screen time

noun

1

: the amount of time someone or something appears on screen in a movie or television show

… the widespread practice of product placement (in which companies buy screen time for their brands) …

—Celia Wren

Peck's role is only a cameo—23 minutes of screen time scattered through six and a half hours of edited film …

—John Skow

2

: time spent watching television, playing a video game, or using an electronic device with a screen (such as a smartphone or tablet)

Concerns about children spending too much time on digital devices—'screen time'—and becoming overdependent on these devices are very real for many teachers and parents.

—Nicky Hockly

If yours is like most American families with kids under age 5, your child probably watches between three and four hours of television a day. That's a lot of screen time …

—Debra Kent

Examples of screen time in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The extended edition includes 40 minutes of additional footage, much of it extended versions of scenes that were in the theatrical cut, giving more screen time to Lester Bangs (the late Philip Seymour Hoffman) and fictional band Stillwater's on-stage performances. —Britt Hayes, Entertainment Weekly, 16 June 2026

Any parent who has ever endured a tantrum when screen time is cut off will feel the sting of those words. —David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 16 June 2026

Less screen time, more me time? —Andrea Riquier, USA Today, 16 June 2026

The hard lesson to learn here, for both kids and adults, comes in balancing addictive screen time with finding connection offline with true friends. —Randy Myers, Mercury News, 16 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1921, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for screen time

• airtime
• bedtime
• daytime
• downtime
• enzyme
• halftime
• lifetime
• longtime
• lunchtime
• mealtime
• meantime
• nighttime