telephone bell
- noun
- /ˈtɛlɪˌfoʊn bɛl/
- Archaic
:
timbre de teléfono
- The telephone bell was ringing wildly, but without result, since there was no one in the room but the corpse.
Examples
-
I don't think the telephone bell is working.
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A telephone bell, ringing close to Ned Beaumont's head, awakened him.
Academic text (1995) -
The sound of the telephone bell filled the room, signaling an incoming call.
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When the telephone bell rang, she quickly rushed to answer it.
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He jumped out of his chair as the telephone bell rang unexpectedly.
Synonyms
203
1.0
The sound a bell or phone makes when struck
133
1.0
A clear loud sound a bell or similar thing makes when hit
89
1.0
A device that makes a sound to get someone's attention
49
3.7
A short high sound like a small bell, for example a notification tone
23
1.7
A clear musical ringing sound made by a bell or a set of bells
21
2.0
A short sound that plays on a phone when someone calls or messages you
1
3.6
A repeated ringing sound a bell makes
1
7.7
A short high sound made by a phone or microwave
A bell that rings when electricity makes a magnet move
A short bell sound on a phone or app that signals a message
How Loud
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'an electric bell that sounds to alert someone to an incoming telephone call' is directly and compositionally derived from combining 'telephone' (device for voice communication) with 'bell' (a signaling device). This simple noun+noun compound follows a transparent, cross-linguistically common pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Telephone bell comes from early phones that had a small metal bell inside. When someone called, a little hammer hit the bell and made a loud ring to 'alert' people, so telephone bell means the bell that sounds for an 'incoming call'.