PHONE | Meaning, Definition In Cambridge English Dictionary

Meaning of phone in English phonenoun uk /fəʊn/ us /foʊn/

phone noun (PHONE)

Add to word list Add to word list A1 [ C or U ] (formal telephone) a device that uses either a system of wires along which electrical signals are sent or a system of radio signals to make it possible for you to speak to someone in another place who has a similar device: Just then, his phone rang. Could you answer the phone? We speak on the/by phone about twice a week. You had three phone calls this morning. If the phone lines are busy, please try again later. Could you pick the phone up for me - my hands are wet. I left the phone off the hook, so it wouldn't ring. I was so angry I just put/slammed the phone down (on her) (= replaced it before our conversation was finished).   Mohd Haniff Abas/EyeEm/GettyImages on the phone speaking on the phone: She's on the phone at the moment but she can see you in a few minutes. UK with a phone connected to your home by wires: Are the Middletons on the phone at their cottage, do you know? See more  on your phone to be using your mobile phone to send messages, play games, look at the internet, etc.: These kids are on their phones all day long. See more

• Just as I was sitting down to watch TV, the phone rang.
• Every time I ring her, the phone is engaged.
• We've spoken on the phone but never face-to-face.
• After he was attacked, he managed to stagger to the phone and call for help.
• "There's someone on the phone for you." "What do they want?"

Communications - telephone equipment

• blower
• brick
• burner
• call box
• cell phone
• dumbphone
• extension
• mouthpiece
• party line
• payphone
• phablet
• powerbank
• sim
• SIM card
• speakerphone
• switchboard
• telephone
• telephone booth
• telephone exchange
• telephone kiosk

See more results »

phone noun (PHONETIC UNIT)

[ C ]   phonetics   specialized a unit of sound at the phonetic level, used when studying speech Linguistics: phonology & phonetics

• accommodation
• alliterative
• alliteratively
• alveolar
• apheresis
• bilabial
• diphthong
• glottal stop
• interdental
• intrusive
• labial
• labialize
• mispronounce
• phonotactics
• plosive
• postalveolar
• postconsonantal
• realization
• the International Phonetic Alphabet
• unpronounceable

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Grammar

TelephoningHere is the start of an informal telephone call between friends: … phoneverb [ I or T ] uk /fəʊn/ us /foʊn/ A1 to communicate with someone by phone: She phoned just after lunch. He's phoned me (up) every day this week. Synonyms call ring

• Hadn't you better phone home? Your parents will be wondering where you are.
• He said he'd phone back first thing tomorrow.
• I tried to phone her but couldn't get through.
• The shop phoned to say your order has come in.
• Who could be phoning us at this unearthly hour?

Communications - by telephone

• 4G
• 5G
• access code
• aeroplane mode
• airplane mode
• alarm call
• buzz
• chatline
• dead zone
• drunk dial
• ex-directory
• ISDN
• make a call
• misdial
• nomophobia
• on the line
• patch someone through phrasal verb
• reverse
• switchboard operator
• tinkle

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Communicating & keeping in touch

Grammar

TelephoningHere is the start of an informal telephone call between friends: …

Phrasal verbs

phone in phone something in -phonesuffix uk /-fəʊn/ us /foʊn/ used to form words referring to a speaker or speakers of a particular language: a francophone (= a French speaker) the anglophone world (= people in the world who speak English) used to form the names of musical instruments: a chordophone (= an instrument in which sound is produced by the vibration of a string) a sousaphone (= a brass instrument named after J. P. Sousa)

• Mexico is the most populous Hispanophone country on earth.
• I grew up in a largely Germanophone household.
• Both Russians and Russophone Ukrainians living in these territories use Russian on a daily basis.
• He played sax, trombone, and vibraphone.
• Any musical instrument in which sound is produced mainly by means of electricity can be called an electrophone.

Using other languages

• Anglocentric
• Anglocentrism
• bilingual education
• bilingualism
• bilinguality
• interpret
• machine translation
• misrender
• mistranslate
• mistranslation
• mother tongue
• multilingually
• natively
• rendering
• target language
• translator
• transliterate
• trilingual
• Waystage
• word for word idiom

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Speakers & talkers Musical instruments (Definition of phone from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

phone | American Dictionary

phonenoun [ C ] us /foʊn/ Add to word list Add to word list short form oftelephone: The phone is ringing – would you answer it?

phone

verb [ I/T ] us /foʊn/ [ I ] Fernando phoned just after lunch. (Definition of phone from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

phone | Business English

phonenoun [ C ]   COMMUNICATIONS uk /fəʊn/ us Add to word list Add to word list a piece of electronic equipment which makes it possible for you to speak to someone in another place who has similar equipment, using either electrical signals sent along a system of wires, or radio signals: over the phone You can arrange a mortgage online, over the phone, or through a meeting.by phone The company can be reached by phone on this number.on the phone She has spent hours on the phone in recent weeks, talking to negotiators in a labour dispute. See also cell phone mobile phone telephone phoneverb [ I or T ]   COMMUNICATIONS uk /fəʊn/ us to communicate with someone by phone: Someone phoned while you were at lunch. Phone him and ask if he's free this afternoon. See also telephone verb

Phrasal verbs

phone in phone sth in phone up (Definition of phone from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of phone

phone Today, the use of mobile phones is widespread and the number of users is increasing rapidly. From the Cambridge English Corpus The economy is still underdeveloped, with low manufactured and hightechnology exports, low expenditure on research and development, and small numbers of computers and mobile phones. From the Cambridge English Corpus Barely able to talk, she phones the preschool to tell them she will soon pick up her child. From the Cambridge English Corpus They put their hands on their phones or their bags. From the Cambridge English Corpus As we show, this exceptional development is determined by the ways in which mobile phones have been adapted to the local conditions of everyday life. From the Cambridge English Corpus The younger generations are also as concerned with what cell phones look like as with their functions and quality. From the Cambridge English Corpus The use of colour makes it simple (once you have thought of the idea) to produce a great chart of phones showing different classificatory groupings. From the Cambridge English Corpus I guess another caller had phoned in the fire. From the Cambridge English Corpus Mobile phones can be very useful in business as people who are away from the office can be contacted almost anywhere. From the Cambridge English Corpus Usually, a company that requires its workforce to be mobile will issue mobile phones to them and pay all the bills. From the Cambridge English Corpus We swapped phones, pretended to be other people. From the Cambridge English Corpus The phonetic mode was thought to be a language-general phonetic mode of perception in which phones are discriminated without any influence of linguistic experience. From the Cambridge English Corpus With the advent of small mobile computing devices like handheld computers and smart mobile phones, the range of possible web displays has increased. From the Cambridge English Corpus We believe that it is insufficient to understand mobile phones simply as devices that are ' domesticated' in order to serve specific local requirements. From the Cambridge English Corpus Mobile phones can allow field-work to be remotely coordinated on flexible timetables. From the Cambridge English Corpus See all examples of phone These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with phone

phone

These are words often used in combination with phone.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

cordless phoneDigital signals allowed the phones to be more secure and decreased eavesdroppingit was relatively easy to eavesdrop on analog cordless phone conversations. From Wikipedia This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.   landline phoneLocal 7-digit landline phone numbers start with 894. From Wikipedia This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.   obscene phoneObviously obscene phone calls are shocking when they happen. From the Hansard archive Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0   These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors. See all collocations with phone What is the pronunciation of phone, -phone?

Translations of phone

in Chinese (Traditional) 電話, 音子，音素, （給…）打電話… See more in Chinese (Simplified) 电话, 音子，音素, （给…）打电话… See more in Spanish teléfono, llamar por teléfono, llamar por teléfono a… See more in Portuguese telefone, telefonar (para), -fono… See more in Marathi in Japanese in Turkish in French in Catalan in Dutch in Tamil in Hindi in Gujarati in Danish in Swedish in Malay in German in Norwegian in Urdu in Ukrainian in Telugu in Bengali in Czech in Indonesian in Thai in Vietnamese in Polish in Korean in Italian फोन / दूरध्वनी, फोन / फोनवर कुणाशी तरी संपर्क सांधणे.… See more 電話機, ～に電話する, 電話をかける… See more telefon, telefon etmek, telefonla aramak… See more téléphone [masculine], téléphoner, appeler… See more telèfon, trucar (a), parlar per telèfon (amb)… See more telefoon, telefoneren… See more மின் சமிக்ஞைகள் அனுப்பப்படும் கம்பிகளின் அமைப்பு அல்லது ரேடியோ சிக்னல்களின் அமைப்பு ஆகியவற்றைப் பயன்படுத்தும் ஒரு சாதனம், இதேபோன்ற சாதனத்தைக் கொண்ட வேறொரு இடத்தில் உள்ள ஒருவருடன் நீங்கள் பேசுவதை சாத்தியமாக்குகிறது, தொலைபேசி மூலம் ஒருவருடன் தொடர்பு கொள்ள… See more फोन, दूरभाष यंत्र, फोन करना… See more ફોન, એક ઉપકરણ કે જે તારની પદ્ધતિનો ઉપયોગ કરી તેમાં વિદ્યુત તરંગો મોકલી અથવા બિનતારી તરંગોનો ઉપયોગ કરી તમારા માટે સમાન ઉપકરણ ધરાવતી બીજા સ્થળે રહેલી અન્ય કોઈ વ્યક્તિ સાથે વાત કરવાનું શક્ય બનાવે છે., ફોન કરવો… See more telefon, ringe til, telefonere… See more telefon, telefonera, ringa… See more telefon, menelefon… See more das Telefon, telefonieren… See more telefon [masculine], ringe, telefon(apparat)… See more فون, فون کرنا, فون پر بات کرنا… See more телефон, телефонувати… See more దూరవాణి (టెలిఫోన్), చరవాణి (మొబైల్ ఫోన్) లల్లో ఏదైనా ఫోన్, ఫోన్ చేయు… See more ফোন, দূরভাষ, ফোনে কারও সঙ্গে যোগাযোগ করা… See more telefon, telefonovat… See more telepon, menelepon… See more โทรศัพท์, โทร… See more điện thoại, gọi điện thoại… See more telefon, dzwonić (do), telefonować (do)… See more 전화기, 전화하다… See more telefono, telefonare (a), telefonare… See more Need a translator?

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phobic phoenix phoenix club phonation BETA phone phone application phone banking phone book phone booth {{#randomImageQuizHook.filename}} {{#randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} Test your vocabulary with our fun image quizzes Try a quiz now {{/randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{^randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{/randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{/randomImageQuizHook.filename}}

More meanings of phone

• telephone
• cellular phone
• pay phone
• phone book
• phone card
• phone number
• phone-in

See all meanings

• phone in phrasal verb
• phone sth in phrasal verb
• phone up phrasal verb
• phone something in phrasal verb

See all phrasal verb meanings

• on your phone phrase
• hold the phone idiom
• on the phone phrase
• pick up the phone idiom

See all idioms and phrases

Word of the Day

self-deprecating

UK /ˌselfˈdep.rə.keɪ.tɪŋ/ US /ˌselfˈdep.rə.keɪ.t̬ɪŋ/

trying to make yourself, your abilities, or your achievements seem less important

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• English   
  • Noun 
    • phone (PHONE)
    • on the phone
    • on your phone
    • phone (PHONETIC UNIT)
  VerbSuffix
• American   
  • Noun 
    • phone
  • Verb 
    • phone
• Business   NounVerb
• Examples
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