Definitions for: Telephone


[n] electronic equipment that converts sound into electrical signals that can be transmitted over distances and then converts received signals back into sounds; "I talked to him on the telephone"
[n] transmitting speech at a distance
[v] get or try to get into communication (with someone) by telephone; "I tried to call you all night"; "Take two aspirin and call me in the morning"



Webster (1913) Definition: Tel"e*phone, n. [Gr. ? far off + ? sound.] (Physics)
An instrument for reproducing sounds, especially articulate
speech, at a distance.

Note: The ordinary telephone consists essentially of a device
by which currents of electricity, produced by sounds
through the agency of certain mechanical devices and
exactly corresponding in duration and intensity to the
vibrations of the air which attend them, are
transmitted to a distant station, and there, acting on
suitable mechanism, reproduce similar sounds by
repeating the vibrations. The necessary variations in
the electrical currents are usually produced by means
of a microphone attached to a thin diaphragm upon which
the voice acts, and are intensified by means of an
induction coil. In the magnetic telephone, or
magneto-telephone, the diaphragm is of soft iron placed
close to the pole of a magnet upon which is wound a
coil of fine wire, and its vibrations produce
corresponding vibrable currents in the wire by
induction. The mechanical, or string, telephone is a
device in which the voice or sound causes vibrations in
a thin diaphragm, which are directly transmitted along
a wire or string connecting it to a similar diaphragm
at the remote station, thus reproducing the sound. It
does not employ electricity.


Tel"e*phone, v. t.
To convey or announce by telephone.

Synonyms: call, call up, phone, phone, ring, telephone set, telephony

See Also: call, call forwarding, call in, call waiting, desk phone, dial, dial phone, dial telephone, electronic equipment, extension, extension phone, French telephone, handset, mouthpiece, pay-phone, pay-station, phone call, phone system, radiophone, radiotelephone, receiver, telecommunicate, telecommunication, telephone call, telephone extension, telephone receiver, telephone system, wireless telephone

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