telephone company
19
1.2
- noun
- /ˈtɛlɪˌfoʊn ˈkʌmpəni/
:
compañía telefónica
- I have CenturyLink in North Carolina, and it is the worst telephone company I have ever had.
- a local telephone company
This was the the telephone company that handled North Georgia, right?
- This was the the telephone company that handled North Georgia, right?
- Instead, it would be maintained by the telephone companies.
Examples
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- Listen, this may come as a great surprise to you, but if you don't pay the bill, the telephone company cuts off the phone.
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I'm calling from the telephone company.
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And I work for the telephone company.
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I am from the telephone company.
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I owe the telephone company money.
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He worked for the telephone company.
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Dr. Flax, this is Mr. Hendricks from the telephone company.
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We also searched for family phone numbers using directory assistance and reverse directory assistance services of the local telephone company.
Academic text (2007) -
Have you ever phoned your telephone company or health insurance provider only to be greeted by an automated telephone system?
Academic text (2009) -
I owe the telephone company money for my monthly bill.
Synonyms
75
1.7
A company that provides phone service to people
42
3.7
Companies that provide phone or internet services over long distances
5
5.9
A company that provides phone and internet services
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a company that provides telephone services' is directly and compositionally derived from 'telephone' (communication device/service) + 'company' (an organization), following a standard noun–noun compound pattern in English. This structure is cross-linguistically common and therefore a B1 learner who knows both constituent words will readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Telephone company comes from the old days when the telephone was a wired device and operators at a switchboard would join calls by plugging in cords to connect people far away. So the word company here means a business that does this connecting, and the phrase now means 'a company that provides telephone service'.