dumbphone
Syllables: dumb·phoneUK/ˈdʌm.fəʊn/US/ˈdʌm.foʊn/
dumbphone noun: a cell phone that does not have any functionality characteristic of a smartphone.
Noun
dumbphone (plural dumbphones)
- A cell phone that does not have any functionality characteristic of a smartphone.
- The Boring Phone is part of a new dumbphone boom, built on the suspicion of gen Z towards the data- and attention-harvesting technologies they have grown up with.2024 April 27, James Tapper, Aneesa Ahmed, “The ‘boring phone’: stressed-out gen Z ditch smartphones for dumbphones”, in The Observer, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC
- But kids don’t really need an internet-enabled phone at the start of high school, [Jean] Twenge argues, because they can get a “dumbphone” (a term Twenge dislikes).2025 September 6, Catherine Pearson, “She Started the Debate About Kids and Phones. Now She Wants to End It.”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- basic phone
Synonyms of dumbphone
Forms of dumbphone
| plural | dumbphones |
|---|---|
| alternative form | dumb phone |
Origin of dumbphone
From dumb + phone, constructed as an antonym to smartphone.
Questions about dumbphone
- What does dumbphone mean?
- Dumbphone means a cell phone that does not have any functionality characteristic of a smartphone.
- What part of speech is dumbphone?
- Dumbphone is a noun.
- How do you pronounce dumbphone?
- Dumbphone is pronounced /ˈdʌm.fəʊn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of dumbphone?
- The plural of dumbphone is dumbphones.
Words near dumbphone in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dumbphone (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “dumbphone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dumbphone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.