phonograph
Americannoun
noun
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an early form of gramophone capable of recording and reproducing sound on wax cylinders
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Also called: gramophone. record player. a device for reproducing the sounds stored on a record: now usually applied to the nearly obsolete type that uses a clockwork motor and acoustic horn
Etymology
Origin of phonograph
1825–35 in sense “phonogram”; 1877 for the “talking phonograph” invented by T. A. Edison; phono- + -graph
Compare meaning
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Explanation
A phonograph is a record player, an old-fashioned machine that plays music recorded on an engraved disk. The phonograph was the first machine that could both record and play sounds. Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, and it evolved first into the gramophone and then the record player or turntable. Phonographs are distinguished by the large horns through which music is broadcast. A record revolves on the phonograph's base, and when the stylus or needle is placed on top, it vibrates and reproduces the recorded sounds. The word comes from the Greek roots phono, "sound," and graph, "instrument for recording."
Vocabulary lists containing phonograph
Journalism
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"The Pedestrian" by Ray Bradbury
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phon
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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.
They were made by the Los Angeles Phonograph Co., according to the announcer on the cylinders.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 12, 2020
For several days, they projected their voices into the giant metal cone of what Fewkes called Mister Phonograph.
From The New Yorker • Jan. 30, 2019
The other is run by Jeff Oliphant, a retired real estate lawyer who is now the treasurer of the Antique Phonograph Society, a worldwide organization of gramophone enthusiasts, and his brother Steve Oliphant.
From New York Times • Sep. 15, 2018
On a recent afternoon, at his dining room table, Levin sifted through an 1892 catalogue from the New Jersey Phonograph Co.
From Washington Post • Jun. 24, 2018
Phonograph records, some broken, some only nicked, were strewn about.
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
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.
