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# phone

«phone» in Mova's school dictionary: **a device for calling and talking to people far away** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (phone, phones); verb (phone, phones, phoned, phoning)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A phone is a device for calling and talking to people far away. A mobile phone (cell phone) can also send messages, take photos and use the internet. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phone/#m1)

2) To phone is to call someone. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phone/#m2)

3) «On the phone» means talking by phone. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phone/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In maths: a thing bought with a price; calls made; minutes or battery used; saving for a phone. In everyday life: calling family, emergency calls (911 in the USA and Canada, 999 or 112 in the UK and Ireland, 000 in Australia, 111 in New Zealand). In science: phones send signals by radio waves. Safety: do not share personal details or photos with strangers by phone.

### examples

- The phone costs 200 dollars. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phone/#x1)
- She talked on the phone for 15 minutes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phone/#x2)
- He saves 20 dollars a week for a phone. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phone/#x3)
- She phoned her grandma 3 times this week. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phone/#x4)
- The phone battery is at 20 percent. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phone/#x5)
- In an emergency, phone 911. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phone/#x6)
- Put your phone away during dinner. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phone/#x7)
- Don't answer calls from numbers you don't know. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phone/#x8)
- Dad is on the phone with the doctor. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phone/#x9)

### note

Usually a thing bought: cost and saving problems. Minutes of calls add up. Trap: «phone» is the thing, its price is the number. «Phone» is short for telephone; «ph» sounds like «f». British: mobile; American: cell phone. Learn your emergency number by heart.

### In the corpora

- [Example: in a café in Toronto, Mum taps her phone on the reader and the coffee is paid in a second.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/7-cards-banks-and-apps/6/)
- [In Manchester, Mum sits with the phone at 7.59, ready to ring the surgery the second it opens.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/20-the-doctor-and-the-chemist/3/)
- [Families make phone rules so meals are for talking, and adults find them hard to keep because phones are built to grab attention.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/29-screens-diets-sofas-and-late-nights/5/)
- [Grown-ups keep friends' secrets too, so whispering on the phone is often about someone else's private problem.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/35-closed-doors-whispers-and-secrets/18/)
- [Lots of young adults find phone calls to strangers scary; planning what to say first helps, and it gets easier with practice.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/38-looking-after-yourself-and-a-home/15/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «phone» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phone/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.