walkie-talkie
Americannoun
-
walkie-talkies
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of walkie-talkie
Explanation
A walkie-talkie is a wireless, handheld transceiver that allows two-way communication using radio signals. Walkie-talkies are perfect for communicating in remote places where there's no cellphone signal. With a pair of walkie-talkies, you and a friend can hold a conversation, both sending and receiving signals over a radio channel. The earliest walkie-talkies were used by the military, starting in the 1930s. Designed to be portable and lightweight, the first version was called a "handy-talkie," with the original official walkie-talkie put to wide use by the U.S. during World War II. These simple, quick, two-way communication devices are still popular today on work crews and in wilderness areas far from cell towers. They can also be fun for kids to play with.
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:
At one of the district's main entrances, an armed member of the government security forces was holding a walkie-talkie and a map of where his personnel were deployed.
From Barron's ● Dec. 24, 2025
Left behind on the street outside the Louvre was the truck, a jerry can, a blowtorch, angle grinders, a walkie-talkie and yellow vests.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
In contact with the bench by walkie-talkie, it was also the communication with his assistants, the sports scientist, the physio and the fitness coach that Allardyce saw the value in.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2025
Pitching coach Blaine Traxel will have the walkie-talkie to relay pitches to Brody, who will be wearing the earpiece behind home plate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2025
The girl’s walkie-talkie lay buzzing on the kitchen floor, and Artemis could only watch helplessly as Butler’s sister strode toward the cell door, muttering about carrots.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
Sales of walkie-talkies from Russia’s main online retailer have risen 73% in the past month, according to business newspaper Kommersant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 14, 2026
Fuad Farhat, 55, from the area's Bab Touma district, was supervising the deployment of several unarmed, black-clad Christian men with walkie-talkies in front of the churches.
From Barron's ● Dec. 24, 2025
They had parked in the back of the facility, and they had walkie-talkies.
From Slate ● Oct. 27, 2025
The two ex-Mossad agents told US CBS News how the service duped Hezbollah into buying thousands of rigged walkie-talkies and pagers without realising they were made in Israel.
From BBC ● Dec. 23, 2024
Jamie grabbed Claudia’s hand and pulled her behind the booth where they rent walkie-talkies for a tour of the museum.
From "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E.L. Konigsburg
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.
