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Glite Dictionary
🔦 Light-based transmitter 🎬 Film sound system
photophone

photophone

1 9.9
A device that sends sound using a beam of light
  • noun
  • /ˈfoʊtəˌfoʊn/
  • Archaic
translation icon : fotófono
  • Unlike the telephone, the photophone used light instead of wires to send sound.

Examples

  • Have you heard about the photophone technology?

  • Invented in the 1880s, the photophone was one of the first devices to transmit voice using beams of light.

  • Alexander Graham Bell invented the photophone in the late nineteenth century.

  • The photophone was an early step toward modern fiber-optic communication.

  • The photophone was an early invention for transmitting sound.

  • The photophone allowed people to communicate over long distances by converting sound into light signals.

  • Researchers are studying the photophone to explore its potential in modern telecommunications.

Surface Forms

photophone singular
photophones plural

Morphology

photophone = phone (transparent) = photo + phone

The word is built from a light-related combining form attached to 'phone', so the idea of transmitting sound by light is directly inferable.

Etymology

Photophone comes from the Greek parts photo- 'light' and -phone 'voice'. Think of photo- like in 'photograph' and -phone like in 'telephone', so a photophone is literally a 'light voice' device that sent sound using a beam of light.