Word.ws English Dictionary

stay tuned

stay tuned verb: to remain as a listener or viewer of the particular radio station or television channel to which one is currently paying attention.

Verb

stay tuned (third-person singular simple present stays tuned, present participle staying tuned, simple past and past participle stayed tuned)

  1. (idiomatic) To remain as a listener or viewer of the particular radio station or television channel to which one is currently paying attention.
    • Alerting Nigeria to stay tuned for an important announcement, the government radio station canceled its regular programs.1966 January 28, “Nigeria: The Men of Sandhurst”, in Time
    • NBC had spent weeks promoting Mr. Daly's new show, and had even commissioned a special original edition of Conan O'Brien's Late Night show . . . to give Mr. Daly's show the best possible lead-in. During his show, Mr. O'Brien twice urged viewers to stay tuned for Mr. Daly.2002 January 9, Bill Carter, “A Contract Dispute Keeps NBC Viewers Waiting for Naught”, in New York Times, retrieved 05 Nov 2012
  2. (broadly, idiomatic, often) To wait or remain alert (for new developments or for further information).
    • Near-synonym: watch this space (often synonymous)
    • [W]riter-director Sean Penn has found a stark camera style that ignites behavioral sparks. Stay tuned; this kid has talent.1991 October 7, “Critics' Voices: Movies”, in Time

Synonyms of stay tuned

Antonyms

Forms of stay tuned

third-person singular presentstays tuned
present participlestaying tuned
past participlestayed tuned
paststayed tuned

Origin of stay tuned

From the operation of dial-tuned radio receivers.

Questions about stay tuned

What does stay tuned mean?
Stay tuned means to remain as a listener or viewer of the particular radio station or television channel to which one is currently paying attention.
What part of speech is stay tuned?
Stay tuned is a verb.
What is the past tense of stay tuned?
The past tense of stay tuned is stayed tuned.

Words near stay tuned in the dictionary

  1. stay the distance
  2. stay the night
  3. stay time
  4. stay times
  5. stay together
  6. stay tuned
  7. stay up
  8. stay within the lines
  9. stay'd
  10. stay-at-home
  11. stay-at-home dad

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stay tuned (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-stay tuned.ogg.

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