teletype

See also: télétype

English

Etymology

From tele- (“far, distant, telegraph”) +‎ type (“text, typewriter”), q.v. In the United States, chiefly understood as a genericization of the Morkrum or Teletype Corporation's branded teletype machines. Doublet of telotype.

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛlɪˌtaɪp/

Noun

teletype (plural teletypes)

1. (historical) A telegraph that automatically prints transmitted messages in letters rather than Morse code or other symbols, typically resembling a typewriter in appearance.
2. (historical) The telegrams produced by this device.
3. (historical) An early input/output device for mainframe computers.

Synonyms

• (telegraph that prints messages in letters): printing telegraph, teleprinter, teletyper, teletypewriter, telecryptograph, telotype, telephone typewriter; telex (connected to a telex network)
• (telegram produced by such a telegraph): telegram, telotype; telex (connected to a telex network)
• (mainframe I/O device): TTY

Derived terms

• glass teletype
• teletypic

Translations

automatically translated electric telegraph

• Arabic: مُبْرِقَة كَاتِبَة f (mubriqa kātiba)
• Armenian: հեռատիպ (hy) (heṙatip)
• Basque: teletipo
• Belarusian: тэлета́йп m (teljetájp)
• Bulgarian: телета́йп m (teletájp), телепри́нтер m (teleprínter)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 電傳打字機／电传打字机 (diànchuán-dǎzìjī), 電傳／电传 (zh) (diànchuán)

• Czech: dálnopis m
• Danish: fjernskriver c
• Dutch: teleprinter m
• Esperanto: teletajpilo
• Estonian: teletaip
• Finnish: kaukokirjoitin
• French: télétype (fr) m, téléscripteur (fr) m, téléimprimeur (fr) m
• Georgian: ტელეტაიპი (ṭeleṭaiṗi)
• German: Fernschreiber (de) m
• Greek: τηλέτυπο (el) n (tilétypo)
• Hebrew: טֶלֶפְּרִינְטֶר (he) m (teleprínter)
• Hungarian: távgépiró (hu)
• Italian: telescrivente (it) f
• Japanese: テレタイプ (teretaipu), テレタイプライター (teretaipuraitā)
• Korean: 텔레타이프 (telletaipeu), 전신 타자기(電信打字機) (jeonsin tajagi)
• Latvian: teletaips m
• Lithuanian: teletaipas m
• Macedonian: телепри́нтер m (teleprínter)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: fjernskriver m

• Persian: تله تایپ (fa) (tele tâyp), تله پرینتر (tele perinter)
• Polish: dalekopis (pl) m
• Portuguese: teletipo (pt) m
• Romanian: teleimprimator (ro) n
• Russian: телета́йп (ru) m (teletájp), дальнопи́сец m (dalʹnopísec) (dated, rare)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: телепрѝнтер m

  Roman: teleprìnter (sh) m

• Slovak: ďalekopis m
• Slovene: teleprinter m
• Spanish: teletipo (es) m
• Swedish: teleprinter (sv) c, fjärrskrivmaskin c
• Turkish: teleprinter
• Ukrainian: телета́йп m (teletájp)
• Uzbek: teletayp (uz)

Verb

teletype (third-person singular simple present teletypes, present participle teletyping, simple past and past participle teletyped)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To use a teletype.

Further reading

• “teletype”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “teletype”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “teletype”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.