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Synonyms

wire service

American  

noun

  1. a business organization that gathers news, news photos, the latest stock-market prices, etc., for distribution, usually by teletypewriter, to its subscribers, especially newspapers: so called from the original transmission of news by telegraph wire.

wire service British  

noun

  1. an agency supplying news, etc, to newspapers, radio and television stations, etc

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of wire service

First recorded in 1940–45

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.

So wire service reporters had to play it straight—get it first but get it right, facts are gettable, verification necessary.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 29, 2026

It was similarly unrepentant about Bloomberg's Lucey, who asked Trump why he would not release material on Epstein, accusing the wire service journalist of "unprofessional behavior."

From Barron's • Nov. 19, 2025

District Judge Trevor McFadden ruled on Tuesday that the wire service should be granted access to the Oval Office and Air Force One whenever other news organizations are allowed into those limited spaces.

From Salon • Apr. 8, 2025

“We didn’t think he was alive at first,” a resident named Tristan told OnSceneTV, a breaking news wire service.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 16, 2024

The next day, Kansas City AP bureau chief Ed Stanley inserted the phrase “the dust bowl” into a wire service account of the devastation, and a new term entered the American lexicon.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

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.