dumbphone

[duhm-fohn]

noun

1. a cell phone without the ability to run apps or connect to the internet and used simply for calling and texting.

Word History and Origins

Origin of dumbphone¹

First recorded in 2005–10; dumb ( def. ) + -phone ( def. )

Example Sentences

I could touch my iPhone to it and it would temporarily turn my device from a smartphone to a dumbphone.

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For those who are committed to—or curious about—dumbphone life, the Light Phone III hews a cautious third path: dabbling with carrying a photo album and a camera in your pocket, making it easier to fit in with the crowd, in a way, yet still adamantly offline in the important senses of having no email, no internet, and no social media.

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And Mr Silberbaum concedes that the resulting handset may well end up being something that sits somewhere between a dumbphone and a smartphone.

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At age 17, Davida Rimm-Kaufman gave up her smartphone to finish high school with a so-called dumbphone, worried that an “extreme addiction” to social media was making her stressed and sad.

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Jacobs finds that one of the remarkable things about his dumbphone is that “It’s just a phone. I don’t think about it. I even accidentally leave the house without it sometimes. It’s not me in the way my iPhone was.”

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