phone

See also: phoné, -phone, and 'phone

English

A rotary-dial phone

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /fəʊ̯n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /foʊ̯n/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊn, -oʊn

Etymology 1

Clipping of telephone.

Noun

phone (plural phones)

1. A device for transmitting conversations and other sounds in real time across distances, now often a small portable unit also capable of running software etc.

Hyponyms

• cell phone
• clamshell phone
• flip phone
• mobile phone
• smartphone
• speakerphone

 

Derived terms

• speakerphone

Related terms

• phone sex
• phone tag

Descendants

• → Hindi: फ़ोन (fon)
• → Urdu: فون‎ (fon)

Translations

telephone — see telephone

See also

• Thesaurus:phone

Verb

phone (third-person singular simple present phones, present participle phoning, simple past and past participle phoned)

1. (transitive) To call (someone) using a telephone.

Synonyms

• call, ring, telephone

Derived terms

Terms derived from phone (etymology 1—verb)

• phone in

• phone up

Translations

to call (someone) on the telephone

• Arabic: تَلْفَنَ‎ (talfana)
• Armenian: զանգել (hy) (zangel)
• Basque: telefonatu, telefonoz deitu
• Belarusian: звані́ць (zvanícʹ), пазвані́ць pf (pazvanícʹ); тэлефанава́ць impf (teljefanavácʹ), патэлефанава́ць pf (pateljefanavácʹ)
• Catalan: telefonar (ca), trucar (ca)
• Chamorro: dengua'
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 打電話 (zh), 打电话 (zh) (dǎ diànhuà)

• Czech: telefonovat (cs), volat (cs)
• Danish: ringe (da)
• Dutch: telefoneren (nl), opbellen (nl)
• Esperanto: telefoni (eo)
• Faroese: ringja
• Finnish: soittaa (puhelimella)
• French: téléphoner (fr), appeler (fr)
• German: anrufen (de), telefonieren (de)
• Greek: καλώ (el) (kaló), τηλεφωνώ (el) (tilefonó)
• Guaraní: mopumbyry
• Hindi: फ़ोन करना (fon karnā)
• Hungarian: telefonál (hu)
• Icelandic: hringja (is)
• Indonesian: telepon (id)
• Interlingua: telephonar
• Italian: telefonare (it)
• Japanese: 電話をかける (ja) (でんわをかける, denwa o kakeru), 電話する (ja) (でんわする, denwa suru)

• Khmer: ទូរសព្ទ (km) (tuurĕəʾsap)
• Korean: 전화를 걸다 (jeonhwareul geolda), 전화하다 (ko) (jeonhwahada)
• Lao: ໂທລະສັບ (lo) (thō la sap)
• Latvian: telefonēt, zvanīt, piezvanīt
• Lithuanian: skambinti
• Luxembourgish: telefonéieren, uruffen
• Persian: دورواژیدن‎ (durvâžidan), تلفن کردن‎ (fa) (telefon kardan)
• Polish: dzwonić (pl), telefonować (pl)
• Portuguese: telefonar para, chamar (pt), ligar para
• Russian: звони́ть (ru) impf (zvonítʹ), позвони́ть (ru) pf (pozvonítʹ) (по телефону po telefónu), телефони́ровать (ru) impf (telefonírovatʹ) pf (rare)
• Sanskrit: दूरवाणी (dūravāṇī)
• Scottish Gaelic: fòn
• Sindhi: ڏُور وائڻُ‎ (Ddoor Vaainn)
• Slovak: telefonovať, zatelefonovať, volať, zavolať
• Spanish: telefonear (es), llamar por teléfono
• Swedish: ringa (sv), telefonera (sv)
• Tagalog: tumawag, tawagan, tumelepono
• Thai: โทร (th) (too), โทรศัพท์ (th) (too-rá-sàp)
• Tibetan: ཁ་དཔར་གཏོང་བ (kha dpar gtong ba)
• Turkish: aramak (tr)
• Ukrainian: дзвони́ти impf (dzvonýty), подзвони́ти pf (podzvonýty), телефонува́ти (uk) (telefonuváty)
• Urdu: فون کرنا‎ (fon karnā)
• Vietnamese: gọi điện thoại, gọi điện, kêu điện thoại
• Welsh: ffonio (cy)
• Yiddish: טעלעפֿאָנירן‎ (telefonirn)

Etymology 2

From Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound”).

Noun

phone (plural phones)

1. (phonetics) A speech segment that possesses distinct physical or perceptual properties, considered as a physical event without regard to its place in the phonology of a language.

Related terms

• phonetic
• phonetically
• phonetics
• phonology
• phoneme

Translations

speech segment

• Catalan: fon (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 語音 (zh) (yǔyīn)

• Czech: hláska (cs) f, fón
• Danish: sproglyd c
• Estonian: häälik, foon
• Finnish: äänne (fi)
• French: phone (fr) m
• Georgian: ფონემა (ponema)
• Hungarian: fón, hangszegmentum

• Indonesian: fon (id)
• Irish: foghar m
• Italian: fono (it) m
• Japanese: 音価 (ja) (おんか, onka), 単音 (たんおん, tan'on)
• Polish: głoska (pl) f
• Portuguese: fone (pt) m
• Russian: фо́на f (fóna), фоне́ма (ru) f (fonéma)
• Scottish Gaelic: foghar m
• Slovak: hláska (sk) f
• Spanish: fono (es) m
• Swedish: fon (sv) c

Anagrams

• nepho-, pheno-, pheon

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔn/

Noun

phone m (plural phones)

1. phon (a unit of apparent loudness)
2. (linguistics) phone

Verb

phone

1. first-person singular present indicative of phoner
2. third-person singular present indicative of phoner
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of phoner
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of phoner
5. second-person singular imperative of phoner

Further reading

• “phone” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).