Word.ws English Dictionary

telex

UK/tɛl.ɛks//ˈtɛˌlɛks/

telex noun: a network of teletypes.

Noun

telex (countable and uncountable, plural telexes)

  1. A network of teletypes.
  2. A teletype message sent through such a network.
  3. A teletype device connected to such a network.

Verb

telex (third-person singular simple present telexes, present participle telexing, simple past and past participle telexed)

  1. (transitive) To send a message over a telex network.

Proper noun capitalized: Telex

Telex

  1. Alternative letter-case form of telex in its various senses.
  2. A convention for encoding Vietnamese text for transmission across telex systems.
  3. Input method for Vietnamese text based on this convention.

telex meaning in Arabic, Indonesian, Persian and Vietnamese

telex in Arabic

teletype network
تِلِكْس tiliks

telex in Indonesian

teletype network
teleks

telex in Persian

teletype network
تلکس teleks

telex in Vietnamese

teletype network
viễn tín

Forms of telex

Noun
pluraltelexes
alternative formTelex
Verb
third-person singular presenttelexes
present participletelexing
past participletelexed
pasttelexed

Origin of telex

From genericization of Telex Printergram and Telex, derived as a blend of tele- (“telegraph, teletype, teleprinter, etc.”) + exchange.

From Telex Printergram, a service offered beginning 15 Aug. 1932 by the British General Post Office's Central Telegraph Office, derived as a blend of tele- (“telegraph, teletype, teleprinter, etc.”) + exchange. Subsequently branded in the United States by Western Union and then similarly genericized. In reference to the Vietnamese conventions, a borrowing of Vietnamese Telex, from French télex, from the English term.

Questions about telex

What does telex mean?
Telex means a network of teletypes.
What is telex in Arabic?
Telex in Arabic is تِلِكْس (tiliks). See Telex meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is telex?
Telex can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce telex?
Telex is pronounced /tɛl.ɛks/ (UK).
What is the plural of telex?
The plural of telex is telexes.

Words near telex in the dictionary

  1. teleworkshops
  2. telewriter
  3. telewriters
  4. telewriting
  5. Telewski
  6. telex
  7. telexed
  8. telexes
  9. telexing
  10. telextender
  11. telextenders

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: telex (page history and authors); Telex (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vininn126-telex.wav.

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