Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
📱 A calling device 📞 To call 🎧 Ear speakers 🔤 A speech sound
phone

phone

9.8
An individual speech sound made when you speak
  • noun
  • /foʊn/
  • Specialized
: fono
  • Each phone in the word 'cat' contributes to its overall sound structure.

Examples

  • I made some phone calls.

    Columbus Circle (2012)

  • I talked to my mother on the phone every night and planned my summer.

    Academic text (2008)

  • Track them down at their house, look up their numbers in the phone book, and call them at home.

    Academic text (2014)

  • Carl told me on the phone your son is the one affected, is that right?

    Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)

  • You have to give them your phone number or they won't let you go on the air.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Ed stands outside MGM, talking into a phone at the guard gate.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • The data collection process began with the researcher conducting face-to-face and phone interviews with 30 participants.

    Academic text (2014)

  • Marissa wrote down their names and phone numbers: Marcia Lyons p69 and Catherine Zolk.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • In linguistics, a phone is an individual speech sound, such as the 'p' in 'pat'.

  • Phonetics studies how different dialects pronounce each phone distinctly.

Synonyms

speech sound
vsphone
  • Specialized
1 4.5

A single sound that people make when they talk

is the phonetics term for that same individual sound regardless of phoneme status

Idioms

on the phone
∞ 1.0

Talking to someone using a telephone

to hold the phone
  • Informal
10 8.2

Tell someone to wait so you can check or explain something

more chins than a Chinese phone book
  • Offensive
1 9.9

A person who has many chins because they gained weight

Compounds

phone call
∞ 1.0

A time when you talk to someone by telephone

phone number
421 1.0

A set of numbers people use to call each other

pay-phone
  • Archaic
112 2.0

A public phone you use by putting coins or a card in it

phone line
89 1.6

A wire that carries telephone calls between two places

phone book
  • Archaic
87 1.0

A book with people's names, addresses, and numbers to call listed alphabetically

phone company
77 1.7

A company that provides phone service to people

mobile phone
74 1.0

A small telephone you carry to call, text, and go online

phone bill
47 1.0

A list that shows charges for phone calls and service for a month

phone booth
  • Archaic
40 1.5

A small enclosed space with a public phone for private calls

cellular phone
  • US
37 2.3

A portable phone people carry to call or send messages

phone service
30 1.1

A service that lets people make and receive calls

phone message
29 1.0

A short voice recording someone leaves on a phone when the person cannot answer

phone card
  • Archaic
14 2.1

A small card you buy to pay for phone calls from public phones or when traveling

phone system
14 2.7

A system that sends voice over wires or the internet

phone cord
5 1.9

A coiled wire that connects a phone handset to its base

phone tag
  • Informal
3 5.1

People keep calling each other but always miss the calls

phone jack
2 3.4

A socket on a wall where you plug a telephone to connect it

phone-in
  • Literature
2 3.8

A radio or TV show where people call in to speak and ask questions

extension phone
2 3.0

An extra phone on the same line to use in another room

dial phone
  • Archaic
1 6.8

A telephone with a round wheel you turn to enter numbers

desk phone
1 1.7

A telephone that sits on a desk with a handset and buttons

crappy phone
  • NSFW
1 6.5

A mobile phone that is low quality and often works poorly

phone plug
1 3.2

A small part you push into a wall socket to connect a telephone

phone monkey
  • Offensive
1 9.9

A person who answers many phone calls to help customers in a call center

doorbell phone
1 4.4

A system that lets a person at the door talk to a person inside

door phone
  • Indian
1 4.2

A device at a building entrance that lets people inside talk to visitors outside before opening the door

Jesus phone
  • Slang
1 9.9

A mobile phone, often an iPhone, that many people want and treat as special

banana phone
1 7.7

A toy or real banana used like a phone for fun

orinasal phone
  • Specialized
9.9

A sound you make when air flows through both the mouth and the nose, like some French vowels

phone tapper
8.9

A person who secretly listens to other people's phone calls

phone zombie
  • Offensive
8.5

A person who looks at their phone and ignores people and things around them

Surface Forms

phone singular
phones plural

Etymology

Phone (sound in language study) comes from the Greek root phon- which means 'sound' or 'voice'. So a linguistic phone is simply one individual speech 'sound', which helps explain why the word is used for single sounds in language work.