Other forms: phones, phoned, phoning
A phone is the small device you carry for calls, messages and almost everything else. On the phone, my phone died, answer the phone.
It is short for telephone and is now the ordinary word. British English says mobile for the portable kind and American English says cell or cellphone; landline is the fixed one. As a verb, phone somebody is standard in Britain and call somebody in America. Note on the phone, meaning in a call; phone box, phone case, phone number; and that a smartphone is only about as old as 2007.
1nounphoneA device for calls, messages and much else.~98%
“Her phone died halfway through the journey.”
synonyms: telephone, mobile, cellphone
2verbtelephoneTo call somebody on a telephone.~2%
“He phoned twice and left no message either time.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 20 sentences found in the wild and placed 20 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
phone is a communication device.
Also accepted in games: telephone, mobile, cellphone, cell phone, mobile phone
Telephone was built from Greek tele, far, plus phone, sound — a device for distant sound. English then cut the far off the front, so the word we use every day means simply sound.
Clipping of telephone. a clipping of telephone; 1884.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA