Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
handset

handset

34 2.5
The part of a telephone you hold to speak and listen
  • noun
  • /ˈhændˌsɛt/
: auricular
  • When the phone rang, she quickly grabbed the handset to answer the call.
  • a telephone handset
  • a phone handset
  • cradle the handset

And then while we are staring at this thing and laughing, it rings because the banana had closed the contacts just like the phone handset does.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • Listen, Curly, could you pick up the handset so we could talk?

    The Fan (1996)

  • Then he listened to the telephone handset as it rang precisely three times.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • Let's now put the handset near it and see if it goes off.

  • In the morning, he debated whether to take the handset with him into the elevator.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • "Put me through," Banish said, lifting the handset off its hook.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Rather than activate the speaker, Pancho put the handset to her ear.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • The small screen on a typical cell phone, for instance, consumes as much as half the handset's power.

    Academic text (2009)

  • Lifting the intercom handset from the wall, he speaks calmly, in perfect English.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Deciding to take this as a suggestion, D.J. quietly lowered the phone's handset until it clicked into the cradle.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Inside the compartment was a red-colored telephone handset with communications cords and several unmarked buttons.

    Fiction book (1991)

Synonyms

telephone receiver
vshandset
1 2.0

A part of a phone that you hold to your ear and mouth to listen and speak

focuses on both mouthpiece and earpiece being mounted on one handle
French telephone
vshandset
  • Archaic
7.7

A telephone that has the mouthpiece and earpiece on one handle

is the part you hold not the whole device

How Portable

mobile phone
58 1.0
handset
34 2.5
desk phone
1 1.7

Surface Forms

handset singular
handsets plural

Morphology

handset = hand + set (transparent) = hand + set

The compound is directly interpretable as a 'set' or device intended to be held in the 'hand' (i.e., the handheld telephone unit).

Etymology

Handset comes from two simple parts, hand and set, where set can mean a 'piece of equipment' or a 'group'. So a handset is literally a 'set' for the hand, which is why it names the part of a phone you hold to speak and listen.