Onscreen

Part of speech: adjective, adverb

Definitions

1. Appearing or shown on a display screen such as a television or computer monitor
2. Displayed visually on electronic screens for viewing by an audience
3. Rendered and visible on the surface of a digital or film display device

Etymology: "Onscreen" is a plain compound: the preposition "on" joined to the noun "screen," with the sense of something placed on or shown upon a screen. Nothing in its making is surprising, and the word's history is essentially the history of the two parts it is built from. The noun "screen" comes from Middle English, referring to a partition or protective shield, and over time it took on the meaning of a surface on which images are projected, and later the glass surface of television and computer displays. Once "screen" meant the electronic display, "on" naturally paired with it to describe anything appearing on that surface. The adjective and adverb uses follow directly from that pairing. Someone might be described as "onscreen" when acting in a film, or a caption might appear "onscreen" during a broadcast, which is how the word is most often used today.

Synonyms: visible, displayed, projected, exhibited, shown

Antonyms: offscreen, hidden, invisible, concealed, unseen