phonograph
Americannoun
noun
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an early form of gramophone capable of recording and reproducing sound on wax cylinders
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Also called: gramophone. record player. a device for reproducing the sounds stored on a record: now usually applied to the nearly obsolete type that uses a clockwork motor and acoustic horn
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of phonograph
1825–35 in sense “phonogram”; 1877 for the “talking phonograph” invented by T. A. Edison; phono- + -graph
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Explanation
A phonograph is a record player, an old-fashioned machine that plays music recorded on an engraved disk. The phonograph was the first machine that could both record and play sounds. Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, and it evolved first into the gramophone and then the record player or turntable. Phonographs are distinguished by the large horns through which music is broadcast. A record revolves on the phonograph's base, and when the stylus or needle is placed on top, it vibrates and reproduces the recorded sounds. The word comes from the Greek roots phono, "sound," and graph, "instrument for recording."
Vocabulary lists containing phonograph
Journalism
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"The Pedestrian" by Ray Bradbury
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phon
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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.
An animated trailer appears to draw on the story of Korean students whose singing of the song US anthropologist Alice Fletcher recorded on a cylinder phonograph in Washington in 1896.
From Barron's • Mar. 20, 2026
Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, but believed its main uses would be for office work, education and recording memories, not music.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 14, 2026
These funds were used to purchase local books, periodicals, phonograph records, and "other media" in multiple Indian languages, enriching collections at over two dozen universities.
From BBC • Dec. 29, 2024
Ms. Stoneman made her mark in 1957 with her driving instrumental version of “Lonesome Road Blues,” which made her the first woman to play modern bluegrass banjo on a phonograph record.
From New York Times • Feb. 26, 2024
I felt put out because I didn’t get any nice presents: no sweater set, no phonograph records—oh, I thought that day was the lowest a girl can go.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
