telephone

CEFRA1

/ˈtɛlɪfəʊn/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A device used to talk with someone far away.

  2. 02

    verb

    To speak to someone by telephone.

Examples

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

  • The telephone rang and Pat answered it.

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • [ˈteɫəˌfəʉn]
  • [ˈtɛɫ-]

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A means of communicating information from one person to another or others.

  2. Short for telephone call (“a connection established over a telephone network; a conversation held by the parties on this connection”).

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

More examples

In context

  • You need not telephone me.

  • string telephone tin can telephone

  • Do you hear the chemical accents of the sun? / Do you telephone the roar of the waters over the earth?

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

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

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

Nearby

Origin

noun

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 *...