phone
verb · noun
Simple meaning
A device for talking to people far away, often a small portable one
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fohnIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfoʊn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
ambitransitive
To call (someone) using a telephone.
noun
A device for transmitting conversations and other sounds in real time across distances, now often a small portable unit also capable of running software etc.
colloquial
A person's telephone number (as a means of contact); digits.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (ambitransitive) To call (someone) using a telephone.
Used this way, phone is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.