headphone

American

[hed-fohn] / ˈhɛdˌfoʊn /

noun

Audio. a headset designed for use with a stereo system.
any set of earphones.

Etymology

Origin of headphone

First recorded in 1910–15; head + -phone

Vocabulary lists containing headphone

Key Words, Unit 3

Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

I’m like, “I have a headphone in my ear and I’m really busy working. You’re kind of bugging me right now.”

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 24, 2026

Right now, your iPhone 5 is small, slow and still blessed with a headphone jack.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 6, 2026

To improve this, Dr Alexander suggests reducing headphone use time and using the transparency mode which can amplify the background noise as well as wearing headphones that don't completely occlude or block the ears.

From BBC • Feb. 15, 2025

Koss Corp. a headphone manufacturer, rose more than 14% and BlackBerry, the one time dominant smartphone maker, climbed more than 4%.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 3, 2024

In the headphone study, the editorial had no impact on those whose heads were still.

From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023