green screen

noun

plural green screens

: a photographic technique in which a subject is filmed in front of a green background so as to allow matte (see matte entry 3 sense 2) compositing of the film with other footage

Show curators are using green screen, augmented reality and visual effects to create an illusion of a near-real event.

—Ruhail Amin

also : the green background

The kids recorded themselves at home, shooting videos in front of a home-made green screen, which Mrs. Hopkins sent home for their families.

—Katie Morse

—often used before another noun

green screen technology

compare blue screen

Examples of green screen in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

People have gone berserk with green screens, like SkepticalPickle’s hallucinatory haze of a video where her nails and makeup morph into neon cyclones and every sound drips with reverb. —Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 12 Mar. 2025

Each year, the ABC daytime hosts pay tribute to a film going in front of a green screen and placing them in the movie for the show’s opener. —Armando Tinoco, Deadline, 3 Mar. 2025

During that performance, Roan wore a pink gingham leather set by designer Zana Bayne—a riff on cowboy buckskins—and performed in front of a green screen with a giant tree and small critters dancing along to the song. —Nina Corcoran, Pitchfork, 14 Mar. 2025

The film doesn’t hide its use of tech, explicitly showing the green screen being set up before each scene. —Wilson Chapman, IndieWire, 6 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1983, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for green screen

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