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

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

One of the most reliable ways for the U.S. to reach North Korea is via a light pink-colored, touch-tone phone at the U.S.-led U.N.

From Seattle Times • Jul. 20, 2023

In 1963, the Bell System introduced the first commercial touch-tone telephone system in Carnegie and Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

From Washington Times • Nov. 18, 2020

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

Many of its now-vanished pavilions had purported to show visitors the future — with its touch-tone, speaker and video phones, IBM Selectric typewriters, even colonies on the moon and houses underground.

From New York Times • Apr. 18, 2014