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Glite Dictionary
acoustic gramophone

acoustic gramophone

9.9
An old record player with a large horn that makes sound without electricity
  • noun
  • /əˈkuːstɪk ˈɡræməˌfoʊn/
  • Archaic
translation icon : gramófono acústico
  • The museum displayed a beautifully restored acoustic gramophone from the early 1900s.

Examples

  • Collectors often prize the elegant horns of the acoustic gramophone for their craftsmanship.

  • I found an acoustic gramophone at the antique shop.

  • He wound up the acoustic gramophone and placed a vinyl record on the turntable.

  • The acoustic gramophone played beautifully.

  • The museum displayed a beautifully restored acoustic gramophone from the early 1900s.

  • He wound up the acoustic gramophone and placed a vinyl record on the turntable.

  • Collectors often prize the elegant horns of the acoustic gramophone for their craftsmanship.

Synonyms

phonograph
vsacoustic gramophone
  • Archaic
14 8.8

A machine that plays music from old records

limits this to purely mechanical horn amplification without electronics
gramophone
vsacoustic gramophone
  • Archaic
8 9.2

An old machine that plays music from records using a needle

is the antique horn-based machine using only mechanical amplification
phono
vsacoustic gramophone
  • Specialized
1 9.9

A unit that measures how loud a sound seems or an informal word for a record player

refers specifically to the old horn-amplified mechanical device
graphophone
vsacoustic gramophone
  • Archaic
1 9.9

An early machine that records and plays back sound

focuses on playing back discs with horn-only mechanical amplification

Surface Forms

acoustic gramophone singular
acoustic gramophones plural

Morphology

acoustic + gramophone

This is a straightforward adjective+noun composition: 'acoustic' (relating to sound or not electrically amplified) modifies 'gramophone' (an antique record player), so a learner who knows both constituents can infer it is a gramophone that amplifies sound mechanically or is non-electronic. The meaning follows normal compositional patterns and is cross-linguistically transparent, so it should be understandable to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Acoustic gramophone is named for its loud horn: acoustic means 'sound' and a gramophone is a machine that 'plays records'. Because the horn made the music louder without electricity, the name now refers to an old record player that made the sound louder with its horn.