microphone
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of microphone
1875–80; micro-, in sense “enlarging” (extracted from microscope ) + -phone
Explanation
A microphone is an electric device that amplifies the sound of a voice or instrument. If you're going to stand up in front of a large crowd and want to be heard, you better use a microphone. Microphones require electricity and amplifiers to work — what they do is take a sound and convert it into an electrical signal. That signal can then be amplified and sent to a speaker or recorded. Performers can sing softly into a microphone and still be heard clearly by an audience member at the very back of a huge concert hall. The popularity of radio and film inspired this meaning of microphone — originally, the word meant "ear trumpet for the hard-of-hearing."
Vocabulary lists containing microphone
List 6
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Lesson 2
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Roots: micro
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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.
See Examples For:
Davies was still in costume, her stage microphone still in place, when she recorded her Insta post, which she called "your daily reminder not to film at the theatre".
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
When O’Brien lobbed questions at Richards, many of the guitarist’s answers were undiscernible; he seemed uninterested in keeping his microphone in the vicinity of his mouth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
But as JuJu Watkins took her place in front of a microphone for the first time since returning to practice this summer, the USC superstar barely could contain her gratitude.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
Even though he had no notable operations outside the U.S., he hunched toward a microphone and said in a halting voice, “Hilcorp is fully committed and ready to go to rebuilding the infrastructure in Venezuela.”
From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026
The microphone crackles to life above our heads.
From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan
Journalists crowd together in the hope of hearing from him, microphones are thrust into the air and camera operators stretch above the crowd for the briefest glimpse of the game's biggest star.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
His recording technique was “subjective,” as he put it, placing microphones to either side of the drums or piano so that we hear them as the musician does when playing them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
How will he react when 185 million microphones are pointed at him?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026
"I have to take a coffee," said Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, picked up by open microphones as she entered a morning G7 summit session.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
They pick up every sound on their collar microphones.
From "Wintergirls" by Laurie Halse Anderson
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.
