"800 number" meaning in English

See 800 number in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: 800 numbers [plural]
Etymology: In the original North American Numbering Plan, phone numbers beginning with an area code of "800" were reserved for so called toll-free numbers, where the party receiving the call pays the charges. As more toll-free numbers were needed, additional area codes were added to the scheme including 888, 877, 866, 855, 844, 833 and one more was reserved: 822. The term "800 number" is used colloquially to refer to all of these. Head templates: {{en-noun}} 800 number (plural 800 numbers)
  1. (Canada, US) A toll-free telephone number. Wikipedia link: 800 number Tags: Canada, US Categories (topical): Telephony Related terms: 1-800, 900 number

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for 800 number meaning in English (1.9kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "In the original North American Numbering Plan, phone numbers beginning with an area code of \"800\" were reserved for so called toll-free numbers, where the party receiving the call pays the charges. As more toll-free numbers were needed, additional area codes were added to the scheme including 888, 877, 866, 855, 844, 833 and one more was reserved: 822. The term \"800 number\" is used colloquially to refer to all of these.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "800 numbers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "800 number (plural 800 numbers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Canadian English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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            "Entry maintenance"
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        },
        {
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          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
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            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Telephony",
          "orig": "en:Telephony",
          "parents": [
            "Electronics",
            "Telecommunications",
            "Technology",
            "Communication",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A toll-free telephone number."
      ],
      "id": "en-800_number-en-noun-QkydkmKb",
      "links": [
        [
          "Canada",
          "Canada"
        ],
        [
          "US",
          "American English"
        ],
        [
          "telephone number",
          "telephone number"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Canada, US) A toll-free telephone number."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "1-800"
        },
        {
          "word": "900 number"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "US"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "800 number"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "800 number"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "In the original North American Numbering Plan, phone numbers beginning with an area code of \"800\" were reserved for so called toll-free numbers, where the party receiving the call pays the charges. As more toll-free numbers were needed, additional area codes were added to the scheme including 888, 877, 866, 855, 844, 833 and one more was reserved: 822. The term \"800 number\" is used colloquially to refer to all of these.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "800 numbers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "800 number (plural 800 numbers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "1-800"
    },
    {
      "word": "900 number"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "Canadian English",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms spelled with numbers",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "en:Telephony"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A toll-free telephone number."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Canada",
          "Canada"
        ],
        [
          "US",
          "American English"
        ],
        [
          "telephone number",
          "telephone number"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Canada, US) A toll-free telephone number."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "US"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "800 number"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "800 number"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.