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graphophone

graphophone

1 9.9
An early machine that records and plays back sound
  • noun
  • /ˈɡræfəˌfoʊn/
  • Archaic
translation icon : grafófono
  • At the museum, I saw an old graphophone that used wax cylinders for playback.

Examples

  • If Bell ripped you off with the telephone, he'll do it again with the graphophone.

  • There's gonna be a graphophone.

  • - Graphophone?

  • VOICE FROM GRAPHOPHONE:

  • In the early 1900s, the graphophone revolutionized the way people listened to music.

  • The inventor demonstrated how the graphophone could record sound much clearer than previous devices.

Synonyms

phonograph
vsgraphophone
  • Archaic
14 8.8

A machine that plays music from old records

is an improved early device for recording and playing back sound
gramophone
vsgraphophone
  • Archaic
8 9.2

An old machine that plays music from records using a needle

records and plays back sound, not only playing music from discs
wire recorder
vsgraphophone
  • Archaic
1 9.8

An old machine that saves sound on thin metal wire and plays it back

uses mechanical recording methods rather than magnetic ones
acoustic gramophone
vsgraphophone
  • Archaic
9.9

An old record player with a large horn that makes sound without electricity

records sound as well as plays it, unlike players that only amplify records

How Analog

graphophone
  • Archaic
1 9.9
disk
  • Archaic
20 2.6
compact disk
  • US
12 2.5
audio file
  • Specialized
9 3.3

Surface Forms

graphophone singular
graphophones plural

Morphology

graphophone = phone (semi-transparent) = grapho + phone

The word is built from classical combining forms meaning roughly 'writing' and 'sound', but the device sense is specialized and historically tied to recording technology.

Etymology

Graphophone comes from Greek parts graph meaning 'to write' and phone meaning 'sound', the same parts you see in autograph and telephone. So a graphophone is like a machine that 'writes' sound onto a record and plays it back, which is why it was an early device for recording and playing sound.