hotline

nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,788 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: hotlines

A hotline is a direct telephone line for urgent calls. A crisis hotline.

The original was between Washington and Moscow and was a teleprinter rather than a red telephone. A hotline now usually means a number staffed for one purpose.

Definitions of hotline

1nounhotlineA direct telephone line for urgent calls.B2+
“The hotline took four thousand calls in the first week.”

hotline is a line.

Where it comes from

From hot + line.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

hotline in the wild

A hotline can also be called an automatic signaling, ringdown, or off-hook service.
Hotline
A crisis hotline is a phone number people can call to get immediate emergency telephone counseling, usually by trained volunteers.
Crisis hotline
Although in popular culture it is known as the "red telephone", the hotline was never a telephone line, and no red phones were used.
Moscow–Washington hotline
On August 1, 2016, 911 and 8888, a public complaint hotline, effectively replaced Patrol 117.
911 (Philippines)
The hotline answered its first call on February 21, 1996.
National Domestic Violence Hotline

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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