First recorded in 1935–40
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Each stunning string instrument leaning against the stark white wall is a tally and talking book, marking the value of a period of relative solitude and reflection.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2025
As Rubery notes, “The talking book only exists because a group of people had no access to books.”
From Washington Post ● Dec. 8, 2016
That was before the D-word revolutionised the talking book market.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 30, 2012
I suppose at this point I had better forestall the avalanche of suggestions from puzzled wellwishers, wondering that I have not heard of the talking book.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 17, 2012
In spite of his lack of physical prowess, however, he commanded a certain unwilling respect because of his power of "talking book talk."
From Rainbow Valley by Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud)
On October 24, 1972, Stevie Wonder released his 15th album "Talking Book" and the world heard the infectious grooves and seamless vocal delivery of the song "Superstition" for the very first time.
From Salon ● Nov. 12, 2022
“It’s still a little newish for us,” says Sarah Jacobson, director of the Texas Talking Book Program in Austin.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 15, 2022
Other, humbler branches are featured as well, like the Performing Arts building and the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2017
Even more famously, “Superstition,” Wonder’s greatest single recording, was inspired by and penned expressly for electric-guitar maestro Jeff Beck as a thank-you for playing on Wonder’s 1972 album Talking Book.
From Slate ● Dec. 18, 2016
He’d later buy me my first album, Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book, which I’d keep at his house on a special shelf he designated for my favorite records.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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.
