microphone

See also: microphône

English

Etymology

From micro- +‎ -phone.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪ.kɹəˌfoʊn/
• IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪ.kɹəˌfəʊn/

Noun

microphone (plural microphones)

A microphone.

1. A device (transducer) used to convert sound waves into a varying electric current; normally fed into an amplifier and either recorded or broadcast.
   • 1965: Charles McDowell, Campaign Fever: The National Folk Festival, from New Hampshire to November, 1964, page 11 (Morrow)

     Behind the tangled garden of microphones that had sprouted on the lectern, Goldwater spoke softly and casually about his family.

   • 1967: Roderick MacLeish, The Sun Stood Still, page 41 (Atheneum)

     Above them, speaking over a steel garden of microphones, the agitator sweated and scowled out into the darkening street.

   • 2002: Laura Lippman, In a Strange City, page 71 (HarperCollins; →ISBN, 9780380810239)

     […] between the huge Depression-era horses on the plaza opposite City Hall — and Rainer was completely focused on them as they moved toward the podium and the little garden of microphones that had sprouted there. The Hilliards walked stiffly, as if they had been in a car accident.

   • 2005: Tom Stanton, Hank Aaron and the Home Run That Changed America, page 177 (HarperCollins; →ISBN, 9780060722906)

     Aaron perched himself on a wooden folding chair behind a garden of microphones and beamed as he answered questions. Sure, he was disappointed.

   • 2006: Tim Miller and Glen Johnson, 1001 Beds: Performances, Essays, and Travels, page 109 (University of Wisconsin Press; →ISBN, 9780299216948)

     Walking back down the marble stairs, which now felt more like I was leaving Principal Lambas’s office than the Forum in Rome, Holly, Karen, and I made our way to a garden of microphones for the press conference. I was dreading having to say something.

   • 2009: Caroline B. Cooney, If the Witness Lied, page 53 (Random House Children’s Books; →ISBN, 9780385734486)

     […] garden of microphones, which stuck up like metal flowers in her face.

Usage notes

• The collective noun for several microphones (such as can be observed at a press conference) is a garden of microphones.

Synonyms

• (transducer of sound waves to electricity): mic, mike

Derived terms

• multimicrophone

Descendants

• → Lao: ໄມໂຄຣໂຟນ (mai khōn fōn)

Translations

transducer of sound waves to electricity

• Afrikaans: mikrofoon
• Albanian: mikrofon (sq) m
• Arabic: مِيكْرُوفُون m (mikrufūn), مَيْكْرُوفُون m (maykrufūn), مِذْيَاع m (miḏyāʕ)
• Armenian: միկրոֆոն (hy) (mikrofon), խոսափող (hy) (xosapʻoġ)
• Azerbaijani: mikrofon
• Bashkir: микрофон (mikrofon)
• Basque: mikrofono
• Belarusian: мікрафо́н m (mikrafón)
• Bengali: মাইক্রোফোন (maikrōphōn)
• Bulgarian: микрофо́н (bg) m (mikrofón)
• Burmese: ဓာတ်ခွက် (my) (dhathkwak), မိုက် (my) (muik)
• Catalan: micròfon (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 咪高峯 (mai¹ gou¹ fung¹), 咪高峰 (mai¹ gou¹ fung¹), 傳聲器／传声器 (cyun⁴ sing¹ hei³), 传声器 (cyun⁴ sing¹ hei³), 咪 (mai¹), 咪頭／咪头, 咪头 (mai¹ tau^4-2)

  Hakka: 麥克／麦克, 麦克 (mai-khù, mai-kú, mái-kù)

  Mandarin: 麥克風／麦克风 (zh) (màikèfēng), 麦克风 (zh) (màikèfēng), 話筒／话筒 (zh) (huàtǒng), 话筒 (zh) (huàtǒng), 傳聲器／传声器 (zh) (chuánshēngqì), 传声器 (zh) (chuánshēngqì), 微音器 (zh) (wéiyīnqì, wēiyīnqì)

  Min Nan: 話筒／话筒, 话筒 (ōe-tâng), mài-kù, mái-khù, mái-khó-hong

• Crimean Tatar: mikrofon
• Czech: mikrofon (cs) m
• Danish: mikrofon
• Dutch: microfoon (nl) m
• Esperanto: mikrofono
• Estonian: mikrofon
• Finnish: mikrofoni (fi), mikki (fi) (colloquial)
• French: microphone (fr) m
• Georgian: მიკროფონი (miḳroponi)
• German: Mikrofon (de) n
• Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
• Hebrew: מִיקְרוֹפוֹן (he) m (mikrofón)
• Hindi: अणुभाष (aṇubhāṣ), माइक्रोफ़ोन m (māikrofon)
• Hungarian: mikrofon (hu)
• Icelandic: hljóðnemi (is) m, míkrófónn m (colloquial), mæk m (slang)
• Ido: mikrofono (io)
• Indonesian: mikrofon (id)
• Irish: micreafón m
• Italian: microfono (it) m
• Japanese: マイクロフォン (ja) (maikurofon), マイク (ja) (maiku)
• Kazakh: микрофон (mikrofon)
• Khmer: មីក្រូ (miikroo)
• Korean: 마이크로폰 (maikeuropon), 마이크 (ko) (maikeu)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: میکرۆفۆن (mîkrofon)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Kyrgyz: микрофон (ky) (mikrofon)
• Lao: ໄມໂຄຣໂຟນ (mai khrō fōn)
• Latvian: mikrofons m
• Lithuanian: mikrofonas m
• Luxembourgish: Mikro m
• Macedonian: микрофо́н m (mikrofón)
• Malay: mikrofon
• Maori: hopuoro
• Marathi: please add this translation if you can
• Mongolian: микрофон (mn) (mikrofon)
• Norman: microphône m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: mikrofon m

• Persian: میکروفون (fa) (mikrofon)
• Polish: mikrofon (pl) m
• Portuguese: microfone (pt) m
• Romanian: microfon (ro) n
• Russian: микрофо́н (ru) m (mikrofón)
• Scottish Gaelic: microfòn m, togair-fuaime m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ми̏крофо̄н m

  Roman: mȉkrofōn (sh) m

• Sinhalese: මයික්‍රොපෝනය (mayikropōnaya), මෛක්‍රොනය (maikronaya), ශබ්දවාහිනිය (śabdawāhiniya)
• Slovak: mikrofón m
• Slovene: mikrofon m
• Spanish: micrófono (es) m
• Swahili: kinasa sauti, mikrofoni
• Swedish: mikrofon (sv) c
• Tagalog: miktinig
• Tajik: микрофон (mikrofon)
• Tamil: ஒலிவாங்கி (ta) (olivāṅki)
• Tatar: микрофон (mikrofon)
• Thai: ไมโครโฟน (th) (mai-kroo-foon)
• Turkish: mikrofon (tr)
• Turkmen: mikrofon
• Ukrainian: мікрофо́н m (mikrofón)
• Urdu: مائکروفون m (mā'ikrofon)
• Uzbek: mikrofon (uz)
• Vietnamese: máy vi âm, micrô
• Volapük: please add this translation if you can
• Yiddish: מיקראָפֿאָן (mikrofon)
• Zazaki: mikrofon m

Verb

1. (transitive) To put one or more microphones on or in.

Synonyms

• mike, mike up, bug (if covert), wire up

Anagrams

• neomorphic, pheromonic

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French

Etymology

micro- +‎ -phone.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mi.kʁɔ.fɔn/

Noun

microphone m (plural microphones)

1. microphone

   Synonym: micro

Further reading

• “microphone”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.