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Glite Dictionary
telephone circuit

telephone circuit

4.0
A connection that carries voice calls between two places
  • noun
  • /ˈtɛlɪˌfoʊn ˈsɜrkɪt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : circuito telefónico
  • The technician repaired the faulty telephone circuit to restore service for the customers.

Maybe radio or telephone circuits, Radio wireless Wi-Fi.

Examples

  • Each telephone circuit connects multiple users, enabling them to communicate seamlessly.

  • I need you to bridge burglar alarms, open doors... ...cut some telephone circuits.

    The Anderson Tapes (1971)

  • People were used to occasional power outages, disturbances in shortwave radio communication, and sometimes an overload in telephone circuits.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • The telephone circuit allows conversations to occur between different locations effectively.

Synonyms

line
vstelephone circuit
∞ 3.2

A connection that carries phone or internet signals

is specifically a network path for connecting two or more points
phone line
vstelephone circuit
73 1.6

A wire that carries telephone calls between two places

is a broader network path supporting communication across the system
landline
vstelephone circuit
38 3.3

A phone that uses wires to connect, not a mobile network

covers network paths generally, not only fixed or wired ones
telephone line
vstelephone circuit
13 1.8

A wire that carries voices so people can call each other

is the network path allowing communication between two or more points
telephone wire
vstelephone circuit
4 2.4

A thin metal line that carries phone calls

is a broader connection that can include nonphysical network routes
subscriber line
vstelephone circuit
  • Specialized
1 4.0

A telephone wire that connects a home or building to the local phone exchange

is any network path, not only the one serving a single premises

How Reliable

stable
473 2.3
closed-circuit
  • Specialized
5 5.3
telephone circuit
  • Specialized
4.0
faulty
61 3.5
open circuit
  • Specialized
1 4.6

Surface Forms

telephone circuit singular
telephone circuits plural

Morphology

telephone + circuit

The meaning is directly derived from combining 'telephone' (telephony/voice communication) with 'circuit' (a route or connection for current/data); together they describe the communication path used by telephones. This noun–noun composition follows regular compounding patterns and is cross‑linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Telephone circuit comes from early phone systems where a circuit was a loop of wire connecting two telephones. When the loop was complete, sound could travel along it, but if the loop was broken there was no signal, so the phrase came to mean 'a connection' or 'path' that lets people talk.