touch-tone

or touch·tone

[ tuhch-tohn ]

adjective

1. of or relating to a tone-dialing system or a push-button phone operating on tone dialing.

noun

1. (sometimes initial capital letter) a tone-dialing system.
2. a telephone utilizing this system.

touch-tone

adjective

1. of or relating to a telephone dialling system in which each of the buttons pressed generates a tone of a different pitch, which is transmitted to the exchange

Word History and Origins

Origin of touch-tone¹

An Americanism dating back to 1955–60

Example Sentences

One of the most reliable ways for the U.S. to reach North Korea is via a light pink-colored, touch-tone phone at the U.S.-led U.N.

From Seattle Times

Jean Essig, a French enthusiast, preferred L and Z. Some practical members would prefer * and #, since they are already on the 12 buttons of a touch-tone phone.

From Literature

There is a bank of touch-tone phones across from the gift shop and a few rows of them adjacent to a concession stand near the 18th tee, with instructions on how to use your credit card so you can give someone a shout just to tell them where you’re calling from.

From Seattle Times

Rhyming in alien purrs and phantasmal coos, it’s as if he’s melting into his beats, which often evoke possessed technologies that Yeat and his producers are too young to remember: touch-tone phones and 8-bit Nintendo games speaking in tongues.

From Washington Post

She remembers being mystified by a test question involving a touch-tone phone.

From New York Times