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telephone - 6 dictionary results
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tel⋅e⋅phone
[tel-uh-fohn] 
əˌfoʊn
noun, verb, -phoned, -phon⋅ing.–noun
| 1. | an apparatus, system, or process for transmission of sound or speech to a distant point, esp. by an electric device. |
–verb (used with object)
| 2. | to speak to or summon (a person) by telephone. |
| 3. | to send (a message) by telephone. |
–verb (used without object)
| 4. | to send a message by telephone. |
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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|
Link To telephone
| tel·e·phone (těl'ə-fōn') n. An instrument that converts voice and other sound signals into a form that can be transmitted to remote locations and that receives and reconverts waves into sound signals. v. tel·e·phoned, tel·e·phon·ing, tel·e·phones v. tr.
To engage in communication by telephone. tel'e·phon'er n. Word History: The everyday word telephone illustrates some important linguistic and etymological processes. First, the noun telephone is one of a class of technological and scientific words made up of combining forms derived from classical languages, in this case tele- and -phone. Tele- is from the Greek combining form tēle- or tēl-, a form of tēle, meaning "afar, far off," while -phone is from Greek phōnē, "sound, voice." Such words derived from classical languages can be put together in French or German, for example, as well as in English. Which language actually gave birth to them cannot always be determined. In this case French téléphone (about 1830) seems to have priority. The word was used for an acoustic apparatus, as it originally was in English (1844). Alexander Graham Bell appropriated the word for his invention in 1876, and in 1877 we have the first instance of the verb telephone meaning "to speak to by telephone." The verb is an example of a linguistic process called functional shift. This occurs when a word develops a new part of speech: a noun is used as a verb (to date), a verb as a noun (a break), an adjective as a noun (the rich), a noun as an adjective (a stone wall), or even an adjective as a verb (to round). When we telephone a friend, we are changing the syntactic function of telephone, making it a verb rather than a noun. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Telephone
Tel"e*phone\, n. [Gr. ? far off + ? sound.] (Physics) An instrument for reproducing sounds, especially articulate speech, at a distance. Note: The ordinary telephone consists essentially of a device by which currents of electricity, produced by sounds through the agency of certain mechanical devices and exactly corresponding in duration and intensity to the vibrations of the air which attend them, are transmitted to a distant station, and there, acting on suitable mechanism, reproduce similar sounds by repeating the vibrations. The necessary variations in the electrical currents are usually produced by means of a microphone attached to a thin diaphragm upon which the voice acts, and are intensified by means of an induction coil. In the magnetic telephone, or magneto-telephone, the diaphragm is of soft iron placed close to the pole of a magnet upon which is wound a coil of fine wire, and its vibrations produce corresponding vibrable currents in the wire by induction. The mechanical, or string, telephone is a device in which the voice or sound causes vibrations in a thin diaphragm, which are directly transmitted along a wire or string connecting it to a similar diaphragm at the remote station, thus reproducing the sound. It does not employ electricity.Telephone
Tel"e*phone\, v. t. To convey or announce by telephone.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : telephone
Spanish:
teléfono,
German:
das Telefon; Telefon…,
Japanese:
電話
telephone
1835, "apparatus for signaling by musical notes" (devised by Sudré in 1828), from Fr. téléphone (c.1830), from télé- "far" (see tele-) + phone "sound" (see fame). Also used of other apparatus early 19c., including "instrument similar to a foghorn for signaling from ship to ship" (1844). The electrical communication tool was first described in modern form by P.Reis (1861); developed by Bell, and so called by him from 1876. The verb is attested from 1878.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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telephone
instrument designed for simultaneous two-way voice communication and the technological system through which it is employed. It is a central part of modern telecommunication.
Learn more about telephone with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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