touch-tone

American  

[tuhch-tohn] / ˈtʌtʃˌtoʊn /

Or touchtone

adjective

1. of or relating to a tone-dialing system or a push-button phone operating on tone dialing.

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noun

1. (sometimes initial capital letter) a tone-dialing system.

2. a telephone utilizing this system.

touch-tone British  

adjective

1. of or relating to a telephone dialling system in which each of the buttons pressed generates a tone of a different pitch, which is transmitted to the exchange

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Etymology

Origin of touch-tone

An Americanism dating back to 1955–60

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

touch-tone

In the ’80s Palm Common Room, a vintage keyboard, a computer mouse and touch-tone phone hang on the walls.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 15, 2026

The movie’s décor is also specific, from touch-tone phones and Selectric typewriters to the slanted-window city buses and graffiti-covered subway cars, neon signs and clothing styles of the seventies and eighties.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 3, 2019

Ms. Fraser is meeting with a cluster of potential clients, who gather reverentially around a Cortelco 2500 touch-tone covered with paste gems and excremental pink blobs.

From New York Times ● May 8, 2017

Little details would amaze him, like touch-tone phones that replaced the bulky rotaries everyone had used when he went away.

From Washington Times ● Apr. 4, 2015

He's had his back against the wall for the past few weeks and Idol keeps throwing theme weeks at him that are putting the big man in the middle of the touch-tone crosshairs.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 28, 2010