phone book
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of phone book
First recorded in 1900–05
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.
For the internet to become what we think of as the internet, you also needed people like Paul Mockapetris, who created the domain name system that is known as the phone book of the internet.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 6, 2026
DNS, which stands for Domain Name System, is often likened to a phone book for the internet.
From BBC • Oct. 20, 2025
It’s astounding that Apple failed to realize that audiences will watch George Clooney and Brad Pitt read the phone book, so long as they do it together, and truncated “Wolfs’” stay in theaters.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 6, 2025
They were all looking for a man named Steven Reisner, whom they had been dating; somehow, none of them had ever gotten his phone number, so they had found me in the phone book.
From Slate • Oct. 29, 2024
I found his father's name in the phone book and dialed the number.
From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok
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.
