touchscreen

[tuhch-skreen] /ˈtʌtʃˌskrin/
noun, Computers.
1.
a touch-sensitive display screen: touching different portions of the screen with a finger will cause the computer to take actions determined by a program.
Also, touch screen.
Origin
1970-75; touch + screen
Examples from the web for touch screen
  • One of the closest applications with a reasonable market value was a flexible touch screen.
  • Each table has a computer with a touch screen on which you order your food, picking and choosing ingredients as you go.
  • The team started with a seven-inch, commercial, single-input touch screen.
  • Invite your friends over to gather around the jumbo touch screen.
  • touch screen interfaces may be trendy in gadget design, but that doesn't mean they do everything elegantly.
  • When viewing them on the camera, a user taps on the device's touch screen to choose the object or area that should be in focus.
  • It was in a low-end neighbor but it was a high-end school, with touch screen and smart boards.
  • It also provides a clear membrane for the touch screen that was easy to fit.
  • The device is simply controlled by tracing flight paths on maps displayed on a touch screen display.
  • That's because it makes sense on a touch screen, master.
British Dictionary definitions for touch screen

touch screen

noun
1.
  1. a visual display unit screen that allows the user to give commands to the computer by touching parts of the screen instead of using the keyboard
  2. (as modifier): a touch-screen computer
Contemporary definitions for touch screen
noun

a display or monitor on which the user selects options with the touch of a finger, stylus, or digital pen

Word Origin

1974

Usage Note

touch-screen, adj

touch screen in Science
touchscreen
  (tŭch'skrēn')   
A monitor screen that can detect and respond to something, such as a finger or stylus, pressing on it.
touch screen in Technology

hardware
An input device that allows user to interact with computer by touching the display screen.
Often this uses beams of infrared light that are projected across the screen surface. Interrupting the beams generates an electronic signal identifying the location of the screen. Software interprets the signal and performs the required operation.
(1995-04-13)