phone cord

Thân thiện

A child is tangled in a long phone cord while talking on the phone.

Definition

1. Noun:
   • The telephone wire that connects to the handset: A flexible, insulated cable with connectors on each end, used to physically link a telephone handset (the part you hold to your ear and mouth) to the base unit of a landline telephone, enabling the transmission of electrical signals for voice communication.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The phone cord was tangled, so I spent a few minutes untwisting it before I could make a call.
  • When the handset stopped working, I checked and found that the phone cord had been chewed by the puppy.
  • Older landline phones often had a coiled phone cord that stretched when you walked around the room.

Advanced Usage

• "to be tethered by a phone cord": To be physically limited in movement by the length of the cord, often used metaphorically to describe a lack of freedom or mobility associated with older technology.
  • Before cordless phones, you were always tethered by a phone cord during a conversation.

Variants and Related Words

• Telephone cord: A more formal synonym for "phone cord."
• Handset cord: A more specific term focusing on the connection to the handset.
• Coiled cord: Describes the specific spring-like shape of many traditional phone cords.
• Line cord: Refers to the separate cord that connects the telephone base unit to the wall jack.

Synonyms

• Telephone wire (specifically for the handset connection)
• Handset cable

Related Phrases

• Tangled cord: A common situation where the cord becomes twisted and knotted.
  • Every office in the 1990s seemed to have a phone with a tangled cord.
• Cord stretch: The action of pulling on the coiled cord to extend its reach.
  • She used the full cord stretch to answer the phone from the kitchen.

Notes on Usage

• The term "phone cord" is primarily associated with landline telephones and is becoming less common with the widespread adoption of cordless and mobile phones.
• It specifically denotes the cord for the handset, not the cord that connects the phone base to the wall outlet (which is typically called a "line cord" or "telephone line cable").

Học thuật

Noun

1. the telephone wire that connects to the handset

Từ đồng nghĩa

• telephone cord