(phones, phoning, phoned)
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
1.
The phone is an electrical system that you use to talk to someone else in another place, by dialling a number on a piece of equipment and speaking into it.
You can buy insurance over the phone...
She looked forward to talking to her daughter by phone...
Do you have an address and phone number for him?
= telephone
N-SING: usu the N, also by N
2.
The phone is the piece of equipment that you use when you dial someone's phone number and talk to them.
Two minutes later the phone rang...
Doug's 14-year-old son Jamie answered the phone.
= telephone
N-COUNT: usu the N
see also <a href="">cellular phonea>
, <a href="">mobile phonea>
3.
If you say that someone picks up or puts down the phone, you mean that they lift or replace the receiver.
She picked up the phone, and began to dial Maurice Campbell's number...
= receiver
N-SING: usu the N
4.
When you phone someone, you dial their phone number and speak to them by phone.
He'd phoned Laura to see if she was better...
I got more and more angry as I waited for her to phone.
= telephone, ring
VERB: V n, V
5.
If you say that someone is on the phone, you mean that they are speaking to someone else by phone.
She's always on the phone, wanting to know what I've been up to.
PHRASE: v-link PHR, PHR after v