Meaning & use
paging someone
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Meanings
phraseidiom
Calling someone over a public address system or sending them a message on a device to get their attention.
Grammar: The object comes after the phrase: page someone, not 'page to someone'.
Patterns
- page someone
- page someone to do something
- page someone for something
The receptionist is paging someone in the waiting room right now.
They paged the doctor to come to the emergency room.
I was paged twice during the meeting, so I had to step out.
phraseidiom
Contacting someone by sending a short electronic message to a small device they carry.
Grammar: Often used in medical or technical settings; the verb 'page' is transitive.
Patterns
- page someone
- be paged
The nurse paged the surgeon immediately after the test results arrived.
He was paged while he was driving and had to pull over to answer.
In the past, people paged each other using pagers instead of mobile phones.
Common combinations
- page someone over the intercom
- The manager paged someone over the intercom to come to the front desk.
- page someone to a location
- They paged the technician to the server room.
- be paged for an emergency
- She was paged for an emergency and had to leave the party early.
- page someone back
- When you get a message, please page the caller back as soon as possible.
Synonyms and how they differ
- summon
- More formal and general; it can mean calling someone in person or by any method, not just by a device.
- call
- Broader; you can call someone by phone, by shouting, or by name, while 'page' is specifically through a system or device.
- buzz
- Informal; it often means using an intercom or buzzer to let someone in, not sending a message to a pager.
Word family
Commonly confused: paging someone or paging?
paging someone vs paging
As a noun, 'paging' refers to the system or process of sending messages to pagers; it is not the same as the action of calling one person.
Practice
The nurse needed to ___ the doctor immediately, so she used the hospital's paging system.
Choose one answer.
After 'to' in an infinitive, we use the base form 'page'. 'Paging' is the -ing form and would not fit after 'to' here. 'Paged' is past tense, and 'pages' is third-person singular, neither of which follows 'to' in this sentence.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “paging someone”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.