Screenshot

How to spell screenshot

10 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce screenshot

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does screenshot mean?

1. nounAn image that captures exactly what is shown on a computer or phone display at a given moment.
2. verbTo capture an image of what is currently displayed on a screen.

Screenshot in a sentence

• noun

  She sent a screenshot of the error message to the support team.

• verb

  You can screenshot the booking details before closing the browser.

• noun

  The tutorial includes a screenshot of every setup step.

• verb

  Remember to screenshot the receipt in case the email fails to arrive.

Where does screenshot come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a modern compound built from two much older English words. 'Screen' arrived in Middle English from Old French 'escren', a word for a fire guard or shield, which itself traces back to a Germanic root meaning 'to protect or cover'; over the twentieth century it came to mean the glowing display of a television, cinema, or computer. 'Shot' is a native Germanic word, from Old English 'sceot', tied to the act of shooting and, by the era of photography, to a single captured image, as in a camera 'shot'. The two were welded together in the computing world of the late twentieth century to name an image that captures whatever is shown on a display at one moment. Because both halves are plain English, the spelling holds no foreign surprise; the only trap is remembering it is one solid word with the doubled letters where 'screen' meets nothing and 'shot' keeps its single t.

How the word is built

• screen (display surface)
• shot (a captured image)