How do you use the word "telephone" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "telephone": Could you dial for me? The telephone is too high. You need not telephone me.

Telephone Meaning

/ˈtɛlɪfəʊn/

Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounA telecommunication device (originally mechanical, and now electronic) used for two-way talking with another person (now often shortened to phone).

nounA telecommunication device which converts data or sounds (usually speech) into electrical signals which are then transmitted to enable two or more people to communicate with each other over a distance; now usually a device having a dial or keypad with numerals for entering a number, etc., to connect with a person, and means (such as a sound or vibration) for alerting one to an incoming call or transmission; also, the handset or receiver of such a device.

Sentence Examples

Could you dial for me? The telephone is too high.

You need not telephone me.

The telephone rang and Pat answered it.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

call phone ring

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

She picked up the ____ to call her mother in another city.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

I reached for the ____ as soon as it started ringing, hoping that it was the news I had been waiting for all day today.

Word Origin & History

The noun is derived from tele- (prefix meaning ‘from a distance’) + -phone (suffix denoting a device which makes a sound), modelled after German Telephon (“early apparatus converting sound into electrical signals”) (dated) (now German Telefon). The word was first used to refer to the modern device in 1876 by the Scottish-born Canadian-American engineer Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922). The prefix tele- is ultimately derived from Ancient Greek τῆλε (têle, “afar, far away, far off”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁- (“to turn end-over-end; to revolve around; hence, to dwell, sojourn”). The suffix -phone is ultimately from Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound; voice”), and Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to say; to speak”). Noun sense 4.4 (“system of communication using musical notes”) is borrowed from French téléphone (“kind of megaphone; system of communication using musical notes”). The verb is derived from the noun.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"The telephones so constructed were placed in different rooms. […] Upon singing into the telephone, the tones of the voice were reproduced by the instrument in the distant room. When two persons sang simultaneously into the instrument, two notes were emitted simultaneously by the telephone in the other house. […] I placed the membrane of the telephone near my mouth, and uttered the sentence, "Do you understand what I say?" Presently an answer was returned through the instrument in my hand. Articular words proceeded from the clock-spring attached to the membrane, and I heard the sentence, "Yes; I understand you perfectly."" — 1876 May 10 (date delivered), A[lexander] Graham Bell, “Researches in Telephony”, in Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, volume IV (New Series; volume XII overall), Boston, Mass.: Press of John Wilson and Son, published 1877, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 7–8:

"In the terminology associated with this phenomenon, Jach Pursel is known as a "channel"—a vehicle through which "entities" from other planes of existence choose to address human beings. In a more familiar metaphor, Jach is the telephone through which Lazaris places his long distance calls: very long distance calls." — 1990, Earl Babbie, “Channels to Elsewhere”, in Thomas Robbins, Dick Anthony, editors, In Gods We Trust: New Patterns of Religious Pluralism in America, New Brunswick, N.J.; London: Transaction Publishers, →ISBN, part IV (Spiritual Innovation and the New Age), page 256:

"If a string of packthread be attached to the stem of a tuning fork, and the other end of the thread be wrapt round the little finger, and placed in the chamber of the ear, the sound of the fork, when made to vibrate, will be heard at the end of the thread, though two hundred yards distant, while it is altogether imperceptible to a bystander. It has been suggested, that telegraphs, or, more properly speaking, telephones, might be invented upon this principle. The author states that some such instruments have been already perfected, and are about to be exhibited, but we have as yet heard nothing of them." — 1832 August, “Art. II.—The Music of Nature; or An Attempt to Prove that what is Passionate and Pleasing in the Art of Singing, Speaking, and Performing upon Musical Instruments, is Derived from the Sounds of the Animated World. With Curious and Interesting Illustrations. By William Gardener. 8vo. pp. 530. London: Longman and Co. 1832. [book review]”, in The Monthly Review, volumes II (New and Improved Series), number IV, London: G. Henderson, […], →OCLC, page 496:

"The days are behind us (I recall) when children played with makeshift telephones made from jam tins connected by string; […]" — 2013, John Keane, “Communicative Abundance”, in Democracy and Media Decadence, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 5–6:

"It is not easy to say from these passages (which are all we could find on the subject) what plan [Edward] Davy had in contemplation. In the first quotation he speaks of bells, for which we may read a powerful trumpet at one end, and a concave reflector to focus the sound at the other end; or some arrangement like the compressed-air telephone, proposed by Captain Taylor, R.N., in 1844; […]" — 1899, J[ohn] J[oseph] Fahie, “First Period—The Possible”, in A History of Wireless Telegraphy 1838–1899: Including Some Bare-wire Proposals for Subaqueous Telegraphs, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 7:

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