What does "earphone" mean?

A transducer that converts electric signals into sound and is held near the ear, especially as part of a telephone; an earpiece or headphone.

How do you pronounce "earphone"?

Pronounced //ˈɪə(ɹ)fəʊn//.

Common synonyms include: acoustical network, capacitor speaker, coaxial speaker, cone, crossover network, diaphragm.

//ˈɪə(ɹ)fəʊn// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A transducer that converts electric signals into sound and is held near the ear, especially as part of a telephone; an earpiece or headphone.
2
electro-acoustic transducer for converting electric signals into sounds; it is held over or inserted into the ear wordnet

"He was listening to the radio with his earphone."

From ear + phone.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.