Meanings
phone1
plural phones · alternative dated 'phone
- 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.
My phone ran out of battery.
2 more examples
Daragh's on the phone at the moment. He'll call you when he's finished.
There's an old-fashioned phone in the doctor's waiting room - it doesn't work anymore, of course.
- colloquialA person's telephone number (as a means of contact); digits.
It was a clear black night, a clear white moon / Warren G was on the streets tryin' to consume / Some skirts for the eve so I can get some phones / Rollin' in my ride, chillin' all alone
1994, Warren G feat. Nate Dogg Regulate (song)
present singular third person phones · participle present phoning · participle past phoned · past phoned · alternative dated 'phone
- ambitransitiveTo call (someone) using a telephone.
Phone me as soon as you land at the airport.
4 more examples
Her father told her to phone him to pick her up in case it started raining heavily.
"You bloody fools!" shrieked Nickle, stung by a sudden dreadful inspiration, "we've let him phone. He has got through!"
1934, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], The Bravo of LondonIt wasn’t like he was dying to get it off his chest. I think he only phoned because he knew how excited I’d be to hear about it.
2010, Tyler Keevil, chapter 32, in Fireball, Cardigan, Ceredigion: Parthian, →ISBN, page 148[…] “You’d better get here within half an hour, or I’m phoning the police.”
2026 July 25, Nicholas Muhoro, “The Last Call of Jo-Anne Pedersen, the Girl Who Vanished From a Payphone”, in Skip Boring, archived from the original on 26 Jul 2026 - reporting verbTo say via telephone.
After I wrote the 23ⁿᵈ bout midnite Charles phoned he got my note + could I come over then?
1973 November 23, Lou Sullivan, Diary1 more example
Well, the first I knew, Mr. Cooney phoned he had a buyer for my farm, and wanted to know if he could come down.
1905, Patrick Woodard, quotee, “Woodard vs. Cooney”, in The South Western Reporter, volume 85
phone2
plural phones
- human sciencesA 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.
Synonyms & antonyms
More synonyms by meaning
nounelectronic equipment that converts sound into electrical signals that can be transmitted over distances and then converts received signals back into sounds
noun(phonetics) an individual sound unit of speech without concern as to whether or not it is a phoneme of some language
nounelectro-acoustic transducer for converting electric signals into sounds; it is held over or inserted into the ear
verbget or try to get into communication (with someone) by telephone
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
phone · noun, verb
- Proto-Indo-European*kʷelh₁-
- Ancient Greekτῆλε (têle)
- Frenchtélé-
- Proto-Indo-European*bʰeh₂-
- Proto-Hellenic*pʰōnā́
- Ancient Greekφωνή (phōnḗ)
- Frenchtéléphone
- Englishtelephoneclip.
- Englishphone
Clipping of telephone; first attested in 1884.
Full word history & related roots →phone · noun
- Proto-Indo-European*bʰeh₂-
- Proto-Hellenic*pʰōnā́
- Ancient Greekφωνή (phōnḗ)
- Englishphone
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound”).
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans telefoneer
- telefoneerto call (someone) on the telephone
Arabic تَلْفَنَ
- تَلْفَنَ (talfana)to call (someone) on the telephone
Basque telefonatu, telefonoz deitu
- telefonatuto call (someone) on the telephone
- telefonoz deituto call (someone) on the telephone
Bengali ফোন করা
- ফোন করা (phōn kora)to call (someone) on the telephone
Bulgarian телефони́рам, оба́ждам се
- телефони́рам (telefoníram)to call (someone) on the telephone
- оба́ждам се (obáždam se)to call (someone) on the telephone
- оба́дя се (obádja se)to call (someone) on the telephone
- звук (zvuk)speech segment
Catalan telefonar, trucar
- telefonarto call (someone) on the telephone
- trucarto call (someone) on the telephone
- fonspeech segment
Chinese Mandarin 打電話 /打电话, 語音 /语音
- 打電話 /打电话 (dǎ diànhuà)to call (someone) on the telephone
- 語音 /语音 (yǔyīn)speech segment
Czech telefonovat, zatelefonovat
- telefonovatto call (someone) on the telephone
- zatelefonovatto call (someone) on the telephone
- volatto call (someone) on the telephone
- zavolatto call (someone) on the telephone
- hláskaspeech segment
- fónspeech segment
Danish ringe, sproglyd
- ringeto call (someone) on the telephone
- sproglydspeech segment
Dari تیلفون کردن, تیلفون زدن
- تیلفون کردن (têlifôn kardan)to call (someone) on the telephone
- تیلفون زدن (têlifôn zadan)to call (someone) on the telephone
- زنگ زدن (zang zadan)to call (someone) on the telephone
Dutch telefoneren, opbellen
- telefonerento call (someone) on the telephone
- opbellento call (someone) on the telephone
Esperanto telefoni
- telefonito call (someone) on the telephone
Estonian helistama, häälik
- helistamato call (someone) on the telephone
- häälikspeech segment
- foonspeech segment
Finnish soittaa (puhelimella), äänne
- soittaa (puhelimella)to call (someone) on the telephone
- äännespeech segment
- foonispeech segment
French téléphoner, appeler
- téléphonerto call (someone) on the telephone
- appelerto call (someone) on the telephone
- phonerto call (someone) on the telephone
- phonespeech segment
German anrufen, telefonieren
- anrufento call (someone) on the telephone
- telefonierento call (someone) on the telephone
- Phonspeech segment
Greek τηλεφωνώ, παίρνω τηλέφωνο
- τηλεφωνώ (tilefonó)to call (someone) on the telephone
- παίρνω τηλέφωνο (paírno tiléfono)to call (someone) on the telephone
- παίρνω (paírno)to call (someone) on the telephone
- καλώ (kaló)to call (someone) on the telephone
Hebrew צילצל \ צִלְצֵל
- צילצל \ צִלְצֵל (tsiltsél)to call (someone) on the telephone
Hindi फ़ोन करना
- फ़ोन करना (fon karnā)to call (someone) on the telephone
Hungarian telefonál, fón
- telefonálto call (someone) on the telephone
- fónspeech segment
- hangszegmentumspeech segment
Icelandic hringja
- hringjato call (someone) on the telephone
Indonesian telepon, fon
- teleponto call (someone) on the telephone
- fonspeech segment
Iranian Persian دورواژیدن, تلفن کردن
- دورواژیدن (durvâžidan)to call (someone) on the telephone
- تلفن کردن (telefon kardan)to call (someone) on the telephone
- تلفن زدن (telefon zadan)to call (someone) on the telephone
- زنگ زدن (zang zadan)to call (someone) on the telephone
Irish foghar
- fogharspeech segment
Italian telefonare, fono
- telefonareto call (someone) on the telephone
- fonospeech segment
Japanese 電話をかける, 電話する
- 電話をかける (denwa o kakeru)to call (someone) on the telephone
- 電話する (denwa suru)to call (someone) on the telephone
- 音価 (onka)speech segment
- 単音 (tan'on)speech segment
Korean 전화를 걸다, 전화하다
- 전화를 걸다 (jeonhwareul geolda)to call (someone) on the telephone
- 전화하다 (jeonhwahada)to call (someone) on the telephone
Latvian telefonēt, zvanīt
- telefonētto call (someone) on the telephone
- zvanītto call (someone) on the telephone
- piezvanītto call (someone) on the telephone
Lithuanian skambinti
- skambintito call (someone) on the telephone
Persian دورگویال, آوا
- دورگویالspeech segment
- آوا (âvâ)speech segment
Polish dzwonić, zadzwonić
- dzwonićto call (someone) on the telephone
- zadzwonićto call (someone) on the telephone
- telefonowaćto call (someone) on the telephone
- zatelefonowaćto call (someone) on the telephone
- głoskaspeech segment
Portuguese telefonar para, chamar
- telefonar parato call (someone) on the telephone
- chamarto call (someone) on the telephone
- ligar parato call (someone) on the telephone
- fonespeech segment
Romanian a telefona
- a telefonato call (someone) on the telephone
Russian звони́ть, позвони́ть
- звони́ть (zvonítʹ)to call (someone) on the telephone
- позвони́ть (pozvonítʹ)to call (someone) on the telephone
- телефони́ровать (telefonírovatʹ)to call (someone) on the telephone
- фо́на (fóna)speech segment
- фоне́ма (fonéma)speech segment
Scottish Gaelic fòn, foghar
- fònto call (someone) on the telephone
- fogharspeech segment
Slovak telefonovať, zatelefonovať
- telefonovaťto call (someone) on the telephone
- zatelefonovaťto call (someone) on the telephone
- volaťto call (someone) on the telephone
- zavolaťto call (someone) on the telephone
- hláskaspeech segment
Spanish telefonear, llamar por teléfono
- telefonearto call (someone) on the telephone
- llamar por teléfonoto call (someone) on the telephone
- timbrarto call (someone) on the telephone
- fonospeech segment
Swedish ringa, telefonera
- ringato call (someone) on the telephone
- telefonerato call (someone) on the telephone
- fonspeech segment
Tagalog tumawag, tawagan
- tumawagto call (someone) on the telephone
- tawaganto call (someone) on the telephone
- tumeleponoto call (someone) on the telephone
Tamil ஃபோன் பண்ணு
- ஃபோன் பண்ணு (fōṉ paṇṇu)to call (someone) on the telephone
Thai โทร, โทรศัพท์
- โทร (too)to call (someone) on the telephone
- โทรศัพท์ (too-rá-sàp)to call (someone) on the telephone
Turkish aramak, telefon etmek
- aramakto call (someone) on the telephone
- telefon etmekto call (someone) on the telephone
- telefonlamakto call (someone) on the telephone
Ukrainian дзвони́ти, подзвони́ти
- дзвони́ти (dzvonýty)to call (someone) on the telephone
- подзвони́ти (podzvonýty)to call (someone) on the telephone
- телефонува́ти (telefonuváty)to call (someone) on the telephone
- зателефонува́ти (zatelefonuváty)to call (someone) on the telephone
Urdu فون کرنا, ملانا
- فون کرنا (fon karnā)to call (someone) on the telephone
- ملانا (milānā)to call (someone) on the telephone
- صوت (saut)speech segment
Vietnamese gọi điện thoại, gọi điện
- gọi điện thoạito call (someone) on the telephone
- gọi điệnto call (someone) on the telephone
- kêu điện thoạito call (someone) on the telephone
- điện thoạito call (someone) on the telephone
- điệnto call (someone) on the telephone
Welsh ffonio
- ffonioto call (someone) on the telephone
Yiddish טעלעפֿאָנירן
- טעלעפֿאָנירן (telefonirn)to call (someone) on the telephone
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with phone
Anagrams
Cite this entry
phone. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/phone
“phone.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/phone. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “phone,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/phone.
Source: phone on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.