telegraph

CEFRB1

/ˈtɛl.ɪ.ɡɹɑːf/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A system for sending messages over wires.

  2. 02

    verb

    To send a message by telegraph.

Examples

  • Do you know who invented the telegraph?

  • I carelessly ran into the telegraph pole.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A visible or audible cue that indicates to an opponent the action that a character is about to take.

  2. The electrical device gradually developed in the early 19th century to transmit messages (telegrams) using Morse code; the entire system used to transmit its messages including overhead lines and transoceanic cables.

  3. Synonym of telegraphy, any process for transmitting arbitrarily long messages over a long distance using a symbolic code.

More examples

In context

  • Is the fax a modern form of the telegraph?

  • The first message transmitted by telegraph in the United States was WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT.

  • This strict sense of telegraph developed from French usage for Napoleon's overland semaphore network but rather arbitrarily excludes similar Chinese and other signalling networks.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The blank machine sent coded messages over long distances using electrical signals.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Borrowed from French télégraphe, equivalent to tele- (“far, distant”) + graph (“writing”), suggested as a new name for Claude Chappe's overland semaphore network by André François Miot de Mélito in place of Chappe's original tachygraphe (“tachygraph, fast writer”).