pay phone

American  

noun

• pay phones
  plural

1. a public telephone requiring that the caller deposit coins or use a credit card to pay for a call.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• pay phones
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of pay phone

First recorded in 1935–40

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pay phone

PENNAN, Scotland—William Arnold drove 900 miles from his home in Cornwall this summer to a windswept pay phone on the Isle of Lewis.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

Back in Pennan, a trickle of people trekked down the steep, winding path from the hilltop to see if the pay phone from “Local Hero” was still working and maybe make a call or two.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

Another draw is the pay phone near Penrith in northern England, where the lead character in the cult classic “Withnail and I” harangues his agent for an acting job.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

I remember sad Bob Seger on a pay phone in a hallway talking to somebody — like, “I’m headed to Michigan, where I should be a god, but I’m opening for Bachman-Turner Overdrive.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2025

I went to a pay phone, but I wasn’t sure where to put the money or exactly how to make a long-distance call.

From "Facing the Lion" by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton and Herman Viola

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