telegraph
Americannoun
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telegraphs
plural
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an apparatus, system, or process for transmitting messages or signals to a distant place, especially by means of an electric device consisting essentially of a sending instrument and a distant receiving instrument connected by a conducting wire or other communications channel.
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Nautical. an apparatus, usually mechanical, for transmitting and receiving orders between the bridge of a ship and the engine room or some other part of the engineering department.
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a message sent by telegraph; a telegram.
verb (used with object)
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telegraphs,
present (3rd person singular)
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telegraphed,
past participle, past
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telegraphing
present participle
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to transmit or send (a message) by telegraph.
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to send a message to (a person) by telegraph.
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Informal. to divulge or indicate unwittingly (one's intention, next offensive move, etc.), as to an opponent or to an audience; broadcast.
The fighter telegraphed his punch and his opponent was able to parry it. If you act nervous too early in the scene, you'll telegraph the character's guilt.
verb (used without object)
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telegraphs,
present (3rd person singular)
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telegraphed,
past participle, past
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telegraphing
present participle
noun
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a device, system, or process by which information can be transmitted over a distance, esp using radio signals or coded electrical signals sent along a transmission line connected to a transmitting and a receiving instrument
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( as modifier )
telegraph pole
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a message transmitted by such a device, system, or process; telegram
verb
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to send a telegram to (a person or place); wire
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(tr) to transmit or send by telegraph
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informal (tr) boxing to prepare to deliver (a punch) so obviously that one's opponent has ample time to avoid it
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(tr) to give advance notice of (anything), esp unintentionally
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informal (tr) to cast (votes) illegally by impersonating registered voters
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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telegraphsimple
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telegraphssimple
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have telegraphedperfect
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has telegraphedperfect
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am telegraphingprogressive
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are telegraphingprogressive
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is telegraphingprogressive
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have been telegraphingperfect progressive
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has been telegraphingperfect progressive
Past
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telegraphedsimple
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had telegraphedperfect
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was telegraphingprogressive
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were telegraphingprogressive
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had been telegraphingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of telegraph
< French télégraphe (1792) a kind of manual signaling device; see tele- 1, -graph
Explanation
Forget about the internet! Before even the telephone was invented, the telegraph — a device used to communicate via electronic signals — was the main mode of communicating long distance. We've come a long way! The telegraph is an outdated form of communication as far as sending long-distance messages goes. It uses an electric signal broken to create a code that then transmits over a wire and translates into a message. Alexander Graham Bell started tinkering with the telegraph and ended up inventing the first "harmonic telegraph" to transmit sound through a wire — which led to the birth of the modern telephone.
Vocabulary lists containing telegraph
Write On!: Graph and Gram
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The Industrial Revolution - Introductory
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Our Town
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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:
Tracing its origins back to a telegraph company established in 1847, Siemens makes trains, industrial software, and medical and industrial machinery as well as electrical equipment.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh told Wall Street in June to stop relying on the central bank to telegraph its every move in advance.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
Warsh offered no hint of whether the Fed would hike or hold at that meeting, in keeping with his stated view that the Fed shouldn’t telegraph its next move.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
Eight million people showed up to see the fair, which featured Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone and Thomas Edison’s telegraph, a fitting tribute to American innovation.
From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2026
The KGB probably knew that the telegraph company was making copies of every telegram and handing them over to the U.S.
From "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin
Her 2011 novel “Salvage the Bones,” set in Mississippi during Hurricane Katrina, immerses the reader in a world full of suffering but telegraphs something profound about human dignity and care.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2026
Experts say the FAA’s shifting approach telegraphs a disquieting truth about air safety as private companies increasingly push to use the skies as their laboratories: Regulators are learning as they go.
From Salon ● Jan. 12, 2026
He celebrated the wave of innovations that had enriched human existence—railroads, steamships, telegraphs, telephones, electric lights, anesthetics, antiseptics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025
It telegraphs that Abigail is no barbaric horror fiend but instead a sophisticated aesthete, which makes her both scarier and funnier.
From New York Times ● Apr. 22, 2024
With our secret code, Jemma’s letter would make about as much sense to Aunt Kitty as her telegraphs were making to me.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
It further telegraphed the kind of ideological inertia in which Juneteenth — and any other present-day discussion of slavery in America — too easily becomes mired.
From Salon ● Jun. 19, 2026
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's co-founder and chief executive, made public comments in January that essentially telegraphed the company would be cutting jobs again this year.
From BBC ● Apr. 23, 2026
Revenue of TWD1.13 trillion were pre-announced last week so to some extent the positive set of earnings were telegraphed.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 16, 2026
SoFi had telegraphed the launch for months, KBW analyst Tim Switzer said in a research note, but the firm was still “impressed” by the roster of crypto partners.
From Barron's ● Apr. 3, 2026
William Tecumseh Sherman had telegraphed the President that the city of Atlanta, Georgia, had fallen to the Army of the Tennessee.
From "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt
Warsh made it clear he wants a more tight-lipped central bank, one that isn’t telegraphing the Fed’s plans for interest rates in advance.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 26, 2026
When the fracas became public, Gabbard decided to litigate it on X and go personal on the whistleblower, inadvertently telegraphing her weak position.
From Salon ● Mar. 5, 2026
On the weekly chart, Amazon has a history of telegraphing meaningful turns through classic candlestick patterns.
From Barron's ● Feb. 23, 2026
Brands can succeed in AI search by “returning to the roots of who they are, what their value proposition is to their customers, how they’re telegraphing that in the market,” Warden said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025
“No, but just like telegraphing is different from one person to another, handwriting is too. See here?”
From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool
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.
