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Glite Dictionary
telephone dial

telephone dial

6.4
A round disc on an old phone that you turn to choose a number
  • noun
  • /ˈtɛlɪˌfoʊn daɪl/
  • Archaic
translation icon : marcador telefónico
  • To call her grandmother, she rotated the number on the telephone dial carefully.

Examples

  • One item from Becker's collection is a lady's compact made in the shape of a telephone dial.

    Blog text (31)

  • They also make correspondence between the numeral in print in the phone book, the spoken word, and the numeral on the telephone dial.

    Academic text (2009)

  • The museum displayed a vintage telephone dial used in the early 20th century.

  • He showed me how to use the telephone dial to select the numbers for making a call.

Synonyms

dial
vstelephone dial
63 1.5

A round control on a phone or radio that you turn to choose settings

is specific to older rotary models turned to choose each number when calling

How Automatic

autodialer
  • Specialized
2 6.4
dialer
  • US
3 3.6
telephone dial
  • Archaic
6.4

Surface Forms

telephone dial singular
telephone dials plural

Morphology

telephone + dial

The noun phrase is compositionally built from 'telephone' (the device) and 'dial' (a round control), so the meaning of a rotary telephone's circular disc is directly derivable from its parts. This follows a common noun+noun compounding pattern found in many languages, making it immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.

Etymology

Telephone dial comes from old phones where a round dial had holes for each number. You put your finger in a hole and turned it to 'choose' a number, so the name now means the round part you turn to call someone.