walkie-talkie
Americannoun
-
walkie-talkies
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of walkie-talkie
Explanation
A walkie-talkie is a wireless, handheld transceiver that allows two-way communication using radio signals. Walkie-talkies are perfect for communicating in remote places where there's no cellphone signal. With a pair of walkie-talkies, you and a friend can hold a conversation, both sending and receiving signals over a radio channel. The earliest walkie-talkies were used by the military, starting in the 1930s. Designed to be portable and lightweight, the first version was called a "handy-talkie," with the original official walkie-talkie put to wide use by the U.S. during World War II. These simple, quick, two-way communication devices are still popular today on work crews and in wilderness areas far from cell towers. They can also be fun for kids to play with.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
She remembers: “I had a walkie-talkie, I would hand per diems out to people, I would run the envelopes around, and bring my dad a towel after the show, stuff like that.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
On Sunday, McCullum was seen sending messages via walkie-talkie to the England players during drinks breaks as they squeezed home against Nepal in a last-ball nail-biter in Mumbai.
From Barron's ● Feb. 10, 2026
Left behind on the street outside the Louvre was the truck, a jerry can, a blowtorch, angle grinders, a walkie-talkie and yellow vests.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
After the pager and walkie-talkie attacks, President Joe Biden, along with some European allies, proposed a 21-day cease-fire in Lebanon.
From Slate ● Sep. 30, 2024
He hangs on to his thoughts, swallows hard, and fidgets with the dial of the walkie-talkie.
From "The Sky at Our Feet" by Nadia Hashimi
Sales of walkie-talkies from Russia’s main online retailer have risen 73% in the past month, according to business newspaper Kommersant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 14, 2026
The cameras zoom in on small figures of soldiers moving around the ruins, with the controllers directing the men on the ground through walkie-talkies, callsigns and headsets.
From BBC ● Feb. 24, 2026
Fuad Farhat, 55, from the area's Bab Touma district, was supervising the deployment of several unarmed, black-clad Christian men with walkie-talkies in front of the churches.
From Barron's ● Dec. 24, 2025
They had parked in the back of the facility, and they had walkie-talkies.
From Slate ● Oct. 27, 2025
At last he found what he was looking for: the walkie-talkie he shared with Jimmy L. The walkie-talkies were very useful since neither his nor Jimmy L’s parents let them have cell phones.
From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
