Meaning & use
Dial tone
Last updated
The continuous sound heard on a telephone line indicating that it is ready to place a call.
See it in a sentence
She picked up the phone and heard only silence where the dial tone should be.
The old rotary phone still produced a steady dial tone.
A note on using this word
Usually written as two words, 'dial tone'; the term survives in everyday speech even though few phones still use rotary dials.
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