Word.ws English Dictionary

photophone

photophone noun: a device that transmitted sound on a beam of light.

Noun (1)

photophone (plural photophones)

  1. (historical) A device that transmitted sound on a beam of light.

Noun (2)

photophone (plural photophones)

  1. (dated) A stills-only camera phone. Used to distinguish from video-capable camera cell phones and camera-less cell phones.
  2. A combination highly-capable digital camera and smartphone.

Forms of photophone

pluralphotophones

Origin of photophone

From photo- (“light”) + -phone (“a device that makes a sound”).

From photo- (“photography”) + phone (“telephone”).

Questions about photophone

What does photophone mean?
Photophone means a device that transmitted sound on a beam of light.
What part of speech is photophone?
Photophone is a noun.
What is the plural of photophone?
The plural of photophone is photophones.

Words near photophone in the dictionary

  1. photophobicity
  2. photophobism
  3. photophobotactic
  4. photophobotaxis
  5. photophobous
  6. photophone
  7. photophones
  8. photophonic
  9. photophonophobia
  10. photophony
  11. photophore

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: photophone (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.

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Cite this entry: “photophone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/photophone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.