Meanings
plural fax machines
- A device which scans, transmits, receives and prints documents (faxes) transmitted by telephone.
Rachel inserted the entire stack into the hydrolab's fax machine. Knowing only a few fax numbers by heart, she had limited choices, but she had already made up her mind who would be receiving these pages and her note. Holding her breath, she carefully typed in the person’s fax number.
2001, Dan Brown, Deception Point, →ISBN, page 4811 more example
I made my notes, by hand, collated all relevant requests, stood in the copy room by a noisy fax machine and slowly fed the documents into it, thinking of someone in New York – a dream city to me – waiting by a similar contraption as my document came through to them, at the exact same time I sent it, which felt so very modern in the doing of it, a triumph over distance and time.
2016, Zadie Smith, Swing Time, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 91Synonyms: facsimile machine, fax, telecopier
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA device which scans, transmits, receives and prints documents (faxes) transmitted by telephone.
Origin
Clipped compound of facsimile machine.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Cantonese 傳真機 /传真机, fax機 /fax机
- 傳真機 /传真机 (cyun⁴ zan¹ gei¹)device which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
- fax機 /fax机 (fek¹ si² gei¹)device which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
Chinese Mandarin 傳真機 /传真机
- 傳真機 /传真机 (chuánzhēnjī)device which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
Finnish faksi
- faksidevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
French fax, télécopieur
- faxdevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
- télécopieurdevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
German Faxgerät, Fernkopierer
- Faxgerätdevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
- Fernkopiererdevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
- Faxdevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
Greek συυή τηλεομοιοτυπίας
- συυή τηλεομοιοτυπίας (syyí tileomoiotypías)device which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
Icelandic faxtæki, bréfsími
- faxtækidevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
- bréfsímidevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
- faxdevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
Italian fax, telefax
- faxdevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
- telefaxdevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
- telecopiatoredevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
- telecopiatricedevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
Latin similarium
- similariumdevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
Māori waea whakaahua
- waea whakaahuadevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
Polish faks
- faksdevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
Russian факсими́льный аппара́т, факс
- факсими́льный аппара́т (faksimílʹnyj apparát)device which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
- факс (faks)device which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
Swedish fax, telefax
- faxdevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
- telefaxdevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
Turkish faks cihazı, faks makinesi
- faks cihazıdevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
- faks makinesidevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
- belgegeçerdevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
- belgeçdevice which scans, transmits, receives and prints faxes
Cite this entry
fax machine. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fax%20machine
“fax machine.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fax%20machine. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “fax machine,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fax%20machine.
Source: fax machine on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.