Meaning & use
land line
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A telephone connection that works through wires and cables fixed to a building rather than by radio signals to a mobile phone.
Grammar: Countable: we still have a land line at home.
Patterns
- call someone on the land line
- have a land line
We still have a land line at home for emergencies.
Please call me on the land line because my cell battery is dead.
My grandparents have never given up their land line.
Word forms
| plural | land lines |
|---|
Common combinations
- call the land line
- Call the land line if I do not answer my cell.
- home land line
- Their home land line rings only for sales calls.
- cut the land line
- They cut the land line to save money.
- land line number
- Give me your land line number as a backup.
- land line service
- Land line service was restored after the storm.
Synonyms and how they differ
- fixed line
- Fixed line is the more technical, common British phrase for the same thing.
- home phone
- Home phone refers to the telephone at home, while land line refers to the type of connection.
- landline
- Landline is the one-word and more common spelling.
- wired phone
- Wired phone describes only the physical link and is less used.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: land line or mainland?
land line vs mainland
Mainland is the main part of a country, not a telephone connection.
Practice
The storm cut the power, but the old ___ still worked because it needs no electricity from the house.
Choose one answer.
A land line gets power through the phone cable. A cell phone could be a tempting answer but depends on battery and network.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “land line”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.