handset

American  

[hand-set, hand-set, -set] / ˈhændˌsɛt, ˈhændˈsɛt, -ˌsɛt /

noun

handsets plural

1. Also called French telephone.  a telephone having a mouthpiece and earpiece mounted at opposite ends of a handle.

---

verb (used with object)

handset, handsetting

1. to set (type) by hand.

adjective

1. (of type) set by hand.

2. (of a publication) printed directly from type set by hand.

handset British  

/ ˈhændˌsɛt /

noun

1. a telephone mouthpiece and earpiece mounted so that they can be held simultaneously to mouth and ear

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• handsets
  plural

Etymology

Origin of handset

First recorded in 1915–20; hand + set

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

handset handsets handsetting

But what was once a small memorial is now just the base of an old rotary phone without the handset.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026

Growth was driven by automotive and internet of things segments, while handset sales fell 13% amid a memory shortage.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026

Qualcomm said its second-quarter forecast includes the impact of a shortage of memory supply and “related pricing on demand from several handset customers.”

From Barron's ● Feb. 5, 2026

Technology analyst and writer Prasanto K Roy says the bigger concern is about how much access an app might eventually be allowed on the handset.

From BBC ● Dec. 2, 2025

He has not keyed his handset in hours, which means he is asleep.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

"A new era of AI agent smartphones begins," Nubia said, sharing images of the handsets online.

From Barron's ● Jul. 19, 2026

Founded as a ground wood pulp mill on the banks of Finland’s Nokianvirta River in 1865, the company evolved through rubber and cables before it became known for mobile handsets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026

He found that three mobile phone handsets ordered by the Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley MP were ultimately "claimable business costs".

From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026

Yet the company may now have a proof point after landing a deal with a major hyperscaler, while its revenue targets show it can diversify its business away from its chip business for handsets.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 24, 2026

Ten minutes later, Kyle, Akimi, and Sierra had stripped the sproingy wires off a couple of telephone handsets.

From "Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library" by Chris Grabenstein

Despite the lead and fumes, Linotypes resulted in far safer and faster conditions than handsetting, and hot-lead composition quickly become the rule for books and periodicals.

From Economist ● Mar. 30, 2018

With hobbies running from gardening to handsetting type, Boyd shares some of Jefferson's own tastes.

From Time Magazine Archive