microphone

noun

mi·​cro·​phone ˈmī-krə-ˌfōn 

: an instrument whereby sound waves are caused to generate or modulate an electric current usually for the purpose of transmitting or recording sound (such as speech or music)

microphonic

ˌmī-krə-ˈfä-nik 

adjective

Examples of microphone in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

As with previous exchanges, Saturday’s hostage release was heavily choreographed, with the captives made to walk onto a stage and speak into microphones before a crowd in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. —Greg Norman, Fox News, 15 Feb. 2025

In the video, Katie’s mom, Ruth, wears a headset microphone while speaking to her mother, who listens through a speaker next to her. —Ashley Vega, People.com, 13 Feb. 2025

Image The producer, Eddie Spear, rose from behind a mixing board and adjusted the microphone in front of Welles. —David Peisner, New York Times, 12 Feb. 2025

Also key: that microphone shape, with a large head and a long handle. —Gabrielle Kassel, SELF, 11 Feb. 2025

Word History

Etymology

micro- + Greek -phōnos "having a sound (of the kind or number specified)," derivative of phōnḗ "sound made by something living, voice, speech, utterance" — more at phono-

Note: The first use of a compound with these Greek elements in English or any other language appears to have been in an essay by the English-born Church of Ireland cleric Narcissus Marsh (1638-1713): "As Microscopes or Magnifying Glasses, help the Eye to see near Objects, that by reason of their smallness were Invisible before; which Objects they Magnify to a strange greatness: so Microphones or Microacousticks, that is, Magnifying Ear Instruments may be contriv'd after that manner, that they shall render the most minute Sound in nature distinctly Audible, by Magnifying it to an unconceivable loudness" ("An introductory Essay to the Doctrine of Sounds, containing some proposals for the improvement of Acousticks," Philosophical Transactions [of the Royal Society], vol. 14, no. 156, February 20, 1684, p. 482). Marsh clearly based the coinage on microscope (with earlier telescope), but as a piece of word formation it is not entirely successful, given that the Greek elements, if interpreted literally, would mean "having a small sound/voice," not hearing or amplifying a sound. (A better alternative might have been megaphone entry 1, coined centuries later.) Marsh's microphone was a more or less theoretical device, and the word, which occurs sporadically thereafter, might have passed into oblivion. It was taken up again, however, by the British inventor Charles Wheatstone (1802-75), who described a purely acoustic device for transmitting sound as a microphone ("Experiments on Audition," The Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature and Art, July to December, 1827, p. 69). Following Wheatstone, the British-American inventor David Edward Hughes (1831-1900) applied microphone to an electric transmitter using carbon to magnify sound ("On the Action of Sonorous Vibrations in varying the Force of an Electric Current," Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, vol. 27 [1878], p. 365), a use perhaps impelled by telephone,

First Known Use

1878, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing microphone

• lavaliere microphone
• lavalier microphone

Rhymes for microphone

• acetone
• anglophone
• baritone
• bourguignon
• buspirone
• chaperon
• chaperone
• cobblestone
• collarbone
• cornerstone
• cortisone
• dictaphone

Kids Definition

microphone

noun

mi·​cro·​phone ˈmī-krə-ˌfōn 

: an instrument in which sound energy is changed into electrical energy usually for the purpose of transmitting or recording sound (as speech or music)

Medical Definition

microphone

noun

mi·​cro·​phone ˈmī-krə-ˌfōn 

: an instrument whereby sound waves are caused to generate or modulate an electric current usually for the purpose of transmitting or recording sound (as speech or music)