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

Etymology 1

Clipping of telephone; attested by 1884.

Alternative forms

• 'phone (dated)

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.

   Daragh's on the phone at the moment. He'll call you when he's finished.

   My phone ran out of battery.

   There's an old-fashioned phone in the doctor's waiting room - it doesn't work anymore, of course.

Hyponyms

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

 

Derived terms

• phonecall
• phoneless
• speakerphone

Related terms

• phone sex
• phone tag

Descendants

• → Hindustani:
  • Hindi: फ़ोन (fon)
  • Urdu: فون‎ (fon)
• → Irish: fón
• → Portuguese: fone
• → Welsh: ffôn

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.

   Phone me as soon as you land at the airport.

Synonyms

• call, ring, telephone

Derived terms

Terms derived from phone (etymology 1—verb)

• phone in

• phone up

Translations

to call (someone) on the telephone

• Afrikaans: telefoneer
• Albanian: telefonoj (sq)
• Arabic: تَلْفَنَ‎ (talfana) (لـِ‎ li-)
• Armenian: զանգել (hy) (zangel)
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܚܘܼܛܵܡܲܠܸܠ‎ (ḳuṭamālil), ܡܲܚܒܸܪ‎ (māḳbir)
• Azerbaijani: zəng etmək, zəng vurmaq
• Basque: telefonatu, telefonoz deitu
• Belarusian: звані́ць impf (zvanícʹ), пазвані́ць pf (pazvanícʹ); тэлефанава́ць impf (teljefanavácʹ), патэлефанава́ць pf (pateljefanavácʹ)
• Bulgarian: телефони́рам (bg) impf or pf (telefoníram), оба́ждам се (bg) impf (obáždam se), оба́дя се (bg) pf (obádja se)
• Burmese: ဖုန်းဆက် (hpun:hcak)
• Catalan: telefonar (ca), trucar (ca)
• Chamorro: dengua'
• Chinese:

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

• Czech: telefonovat (cs) impf, zatelefonovat pf, volat (cs) impf, zavolat (cs) pf
• Danish: ringe (da)
• Dutch: telefoneren (nl), opbellen (nl)
• Esperanto: telefoni (eo)
• Estonian: helistama (et)
• Faroese: ringja
• Finnish: soittaa (puhelimella)
• French: téléphoner (fr), appeler (fr)
• German: anrufen (de), telefonieren (de)
• Greek: καλώ (el) (kaló), τηλεφωνώ (el) (tilefonó)
• Guaraní: mopumbyry
• Hebrew: צילצל \ צִלְצֵל‎ (he) (tsiltsél)
• 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) (tuurĕəʼsap)
• Korean: 전화를 걸다 (jeonhwareul geolda), 전화하다 (ko) (jeonhwahada)

• Lao: ໂທລະສັບ (lo) (thō la sap)
• Latvian: telefonēt, zvanīt, piezvanīt
• Lithuanian: skambinti
• Luxembourgish: telefonéieren, uruffen
• Macedonian: телефони́ра impf or pf (telefoníra), ѕвони impf (dzvoni), заѕвони pf (zadzvoni)
• Persian: دورواژیدن‎ (durvâžidan), تلفن کردن‎ (fa) (telefon kardan)
• Polish: dzwonić (pl) impf, zadzwonić (pl) pf, telefonować (pl) impf, zatelefonować (pl) pf
• Portuguese: telefonar para, chamar (pt), ligar para
• Romanian: a telefona (ro)
• Russian: звони́ть (ru) impf (zvonítʹ), позвони́ть (ru) pf (pozvonítʹ) (по телефону po telefónu), телефони́ровать (ru) impf (telefonírovatʹ) pf (rare)
• Sanskrit: दूरवाणी (dūravāṇī), दूरवाणीं करोति (dūravāṇīṃ karoti)
• Scottish Gaelic: fòn
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: телефони́рати impf or pf

  Roman: telefonírati (sh) impf or pf

• Sindhi: ڏُور وائڻُ‎ (Ddoor Vaainn)
• Slovak: telefonovať impf, zatelefonovať pf, volať impf, zavolať pf
• Slovene: telefonirati impf or pf
• Spanish: telefonear (es), llamar por teléfono
• Swedish: ringa (sv), telefonera (sv)
• Tagalog: tumawag, tawagan, tumelepono
• Tajik: телефон кардан (telefon kardan)
• Thai: โทร (th) (too), โทรศัพท์ (th) (too-rá-sàp)
• Tibetan: ཁ་དཔར་གཏོང་བ (kha dpar gtong ba)
• Turkish: aramak (tr), telefon etmek (tr), telefonlamak (tr)
• Ukrainian: дзвони́ти impf (dzvonýty), подзвони́ти pf (podzvonýty), телефонува́ти (uk) impf (telefonuváty), зателефонува́ти pf (zatelefonuváty)
• Urdu: فون کرنا‎ (fon karnā)
• Uzbek: telefon qilmoq, qoʻngʻiroq qilmoq
• Vietnamese: gọi điện thoại, gọi điện, kêu điện thoại, điện thoại (vi), điện (vi)
• 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

• Bulgarian: звук (bg) m (zvuk)
• 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
• German: Phon (de) n
• 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
• Urdu: صوت‎ m (saut)

Anagrams

• nepho-, pheno-, pheon

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔn/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

phone m (plural phones)

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

Verb

phone

1. inflection of phoner:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

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