dumbphone

English

Etymology

From dumb +‎ phone, constructed as an antonym to smartphone.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdʌm.fəʊn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdʌm.foʊn/
• Rhymes: -ʌmfoʊn
• Hyphenation: dumb‧phone

Noun

dumbphone (plural dumbphones)

1. (informal) A cell phone that does not have any functionality characteristic of a smartphone.

   Synonym: basic phone

   Hypernyms: cell phone, mobile phone < phone

   Hyponym: featurephone

   • 2024 April 27, James Tapper, Aneesa Ahmed, “The ‘boring phone’: stressed-out gen Z ditch smartphones for dumbphones”, in The Observer‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     The Boring Phone is part of a new dumbphone boom, built on the suspicion of gen Z towards the data- and attention-harvesting technologies they have grown up with.

     (Can we archive this URL?)

   • 2025 September 6, Catherine Pearson, “She Started the Debate About Kids and Phones. Now She Wants to End It.”, in The New York Times‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     But kids don’t really need an internet-enabled phone at the start of high school, [Jean] Twenge argues, because they can get a “dumbphone” (a term Twenge dislikes).

     (Can we archive this URL?)

Related terms

• flip phone

Translations

cell phone lacking the functionality characteristic of a smartphone

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 非智能手機 / 非智能手机 (fēizhìnéng shǒujī)

• Finnish: peruspuhelin
• Russian: звони́лка (ru) f (zvonílka), бабушкафо́н m (babuškafón)
• Spanish: teléfono de teclas