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Glite Dictionary
🗣️ A spokesperson 📞 Part for speaking 🥊 Protective device 🎺 Instrument part
mouthpiece

mouthpiece

8 3.6
The part of a device that you speak into or put over your mouth
  • noun
  • /ˈmaʊθˌpis/
translation icon : auricular
  • Hand me my mouthpiece.
  • telephone mouthpieces
  • bacteria on the mouthpiece
  • public telephone mouthpieces

Examples

  • The dentist provided a mouthpiece to protect my teeth while I sleep.

  • Okay, why are you talking with your mouthpiece in?

    Knock Knock (2008)

  • The fat guy put his hand over the mouthpiece and said, "Be with you in a minute."

    Fiction book (1994)

  • I'm going to ask you to speak into the mouthpiece very clearly.

    Transformers (2007)

  • I put my hand over the mouthpiece to keep Roger from hearing me laugh.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • I fumbled with the phone before getting the mouthpiece the right way up.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • "You told me you'd phone me," I said into the mouthpiece, but Livia remained silent.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • STREET -- PHONE BOOTH - NIGHT: ETHAN unscrews the mouthpiece of a payphone receiver.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Please speak into the mouthpiece so I can hear you better.

  • To use the device, you must place your lips around the mouthpiece and breathe in slowly.

Surface Forms

mouthpiece singular
mouthpieces plural

Morphology

mouthpiece = mouth + piece (transparent) = mouth + piece

Literal compound 'mouth' + 'piece' referring to a physical part that goes in or over the mouth, which learners can infer from the components.

Etymology

Mouthpiece comes from the simple parts mouth and piece, where piece means 'part'. It first named the small part you put to your mouth, like on old telephones or breathing devices, so it is the part you speak into.