switchboard
Americannoun
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an installation in a telephone exchange, office, hotel, etc, at which the interconnection of telephone lines is manually controlled
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an assembly of switchgear for the control of power supplies in an installation or building
Usage
What is a switchboard? A switchboard is a device used to connect telephone calls. Switchboards, which are now largely obsolete, consisted of a board of circuits and switches that needed to be manually adjusted for calls to be connected. The person who operated this kind of switchboard was called an operator or a switchboard operator. Switchboards were used in telephone exchanges as well as places that had their own internal phone systems, such as offices and hotels. In all of these settings, switchboards have been largely replaced with more advanced technology that does not require the manual connection of circuits. However, some devices might still be referred to as switchboards because they perform the same functions, just in automated ways. Sometimes, the word switchboard was used as a way of referring to the place or people who operated the switchboard, as in Call the switchboard and have them connect you. It can still be used in this way even though such switchboards are no longer in common use. The word switchboard can also refer to the control panel used to control lighting, such as on a stage or in an auditorium. This can also be called a lightboard. It can also refer to an electrical device used to control the power supply in a building. Example: My grandmother always tells me stories about how she worked as an operator and routed calls all over the world using the switchboard.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of switchboard
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:
The first power outage, prosecutors say, was caused by a loose wire in a switchboard.
From BBC ● May 12, 2026
Demand for switchboard operators brought hundreds of thousands of women into corporate offices, reshaping the clerical workforce.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
I’m used to being a switchboard of sorts — as a journalist, inevitably, word travels to and through me.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2025
Kirschenbaum had no spouse, siblings or children, and lived a no-frills lifestyle, working as a switchboard operator for the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian aid organization, until her retirement in 2004.
From New York Times ● Jan. 11, 2024
Through our entire conversation I had been listless and monosyllabic, half praying that I wouldn’t get the job, that I would never have to look at a switchboard again.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
Police forces across the UK have warned that a new feature on some Android phones is plaguing switchboards with inadvertent "silent" 999 calls.
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2023
His team is now looking at how these little switchboards can be controlled by the brain.
From Scientific American ● Feb. 27, 2023
Students try on headsets and tentatively push buttons on various radio switchboards.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 22, 2021
Moreover, most people “overwhelmingly prefer to interact with a live person when dealing with customer service centers,” meaning consumers despise those god-awful automated switchboards beloved by penny-pinching businesses.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2021
All through the high-ceilinged electrical room of Central, all I see are girls in black and navy and white, manning their switchboards, doing their jobs.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
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.
