What does "sidetone" mean?

The effect of sound that is picked up by the telephone's mouthpiece and introduced (at low level) into the earpiece of the same handset, acting as feedback; or a similar effect in radiotelegraphy, public-address systems, etc.

Sidetone

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
The effect of sound that is picked up by the telephone's mouthpiece and introduced (at low level) into the earpiece of the same handset, acting as feedback; or a similar effect in radiotelegraphy, public-address systems, etc. countable, uncountable

Etymology

From side + tone.

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