Meaning & use
incoming calls
Last updated
Meanings
nounplural
Telephone calls that someone makes to you and that arrive on your phone or line.
Grammar: Always plural in this meaning; talk about 'an incoming call' when you mean just one.
Patterns
- receive incoming calls
- block incoming calls
- incoming calls from someone
- forward incoming calls to something
I turn my phone off at night so I don't hear incoming calls.
The receptionist handles all incoming calls before they reach the manager.
You can set the phone to send incoming calls straight to voicemail.
nounpluralbusiness
Calls that arrive at a business, call center, or emergency service from outside.
Grammar: Often used in work contexts with words like 'volume', 'rate', or 'queue'.
Patterns
- the volume of incoming calls
- handle incoming calls
- incoming calls to a helpline
The helpline gets most of its incoming calls in the evening.
Staff were trained to log every incoming call in the system.
During the storm, the number of incoming calls to the power company doubled.
Common combinations
- incoming call
- She missed an incoming call while she was in the shower.
- receive an incoming call
- You can receive an incoming call even while you are online.
- block incoming calls
- He blocked incoming calls from unknown numbers.
- incoming call volume
- Incoming call volume rises sharply on Monday mornings.
- divert incoming calls
- The office diverts incoming calls to a mobile after six o'clock.
Synonyms and how they differ
- calls
- More general and neutral; it does not show whether the calls come to you or go out from you.
- inbound calls
- Common in business and call-center writing, and slightly more technical than 'incoming calls'.
Opposites
Commonly confused: incoming calls or outgoing calls? incoming calls or missed calls?
incoming calls vs outgoing calls
These are calls you make to other people, the opposite direction from incoming calls; phone bills often list the two separately.
incoming calls vs missed calls
A missed call is one that arrived but was not answered; an incoming call may be answered or missed.
Practice
The support team was overwhelmed by the number of ______ during the sale.
Choose one answer.
'Incoming calls' is the plural phrase used after 'the number of', and it fits calls arriving at the team. 'Incoming call' is singular and would need 'the number of an incoming call', which changes the meaning, and 'outgoing calls' are calls the team makes, not receives.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “incoming calls”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.