"dumb phone" meaning in English

See dumb phone in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: dumb phones [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} dumb phone (plural dumb phones)
  1. Alternative form of dumbphone. Tags: alt-of, alternative Alternative form of: dumbphone
    Sense id: en-dumb_phone-en-noun-VoyIvVG0 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dumb phones",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dumb phone (plural dumb phones)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "dumbphone"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              82,
              87
            ],
            [
              109,
              113
            ],
            [
              115,
              120
            ],
            [
              172,
              176
            ],
            [
              172,
              183
            ],
            [
              177,
              182
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2024 August 30, Samuel Gibbs, “From dumb phones to hand-me-downs: the ultimate guide to buying phones for kids”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2024:",
          "text": "So if the handset is only for calls and texts for arranging pickups and emergency phone calls, then a basic “dumb” phone could be the answer. […] The downside is that many dumb phones still have limited internet access, and only a handful have basic parental controls for locking down the camera, the browser and picture messaging (MMS).",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              7,
              18
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2025 December 31, Callie Holtermann, “10 Predictions for Life in 2026”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 Jan 2026:",
          "text": "I hope dumb phones will deliver us all from constant notifications, but it also seems possible that they will become markers of class and status.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              144,
              155
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2026 February 17, Jordyn Hermani, “Michigan bans cellphones in school as more states move to end classroom distractions”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 Feb 2026:",
          "text": "Students will still be able to access their smartphones between classes or at lunch. During instructional time, they could be allowed to carry “dumb phones,” which can send texts or make calls but not access TikTok, Snapchat or other potential distractions.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of dumbphone."
      ],
      "id": "en-dumb_phone-en-noun-VoyIvVG0",
      "links": [
        [
          "dumbphone",
          "dumbphone#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "dumb phone"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dumb phones",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dumb phone (plural dumb phones)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "dumbphone"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              82,
              87
            ],
            [
              109,
              113
            ],
            [
              115,
              120
            ],
            [
              172,
              176
            ],
            [
              172,
              183
            ],
            [
              177,
              182
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2024 August 30, Samuel Gibbs, “From dumb phones to hand-me-downs: the ultimate guide to buying phones for kids”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2024:",
          "text": "So if the handset is only for calls and texts for arranging pickups and emergency phone calls, then a basic “dumb” phone could be the answer. […] The downside is that many dumb phones still have limited internet access, and only a handful have basic parental controls for locking down the camera, the browser and picture messaging (MMS).",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              7,
              18
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2025 December 31, Callie Holtermann, “10 Predictions for Life in 2026”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 Jan 2026:",
          "text": "I hope dumb phones will deliver us all from constant notifications, but it also seems possible that they will become markers of class and status.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              144,
              155
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2026 February 17, Jordyn Hermani, “Michigan bans cellphones in school as more states move to end classroom distractions”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 Feb 2026:",
          "text": "Students will still be able to access their smartphones between classes or at lunch. During instructional time, they could be allowed to carry “dumb phones,” which can send texts or make calls but not access TikTok, Snapchat or other potential distractions.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of dumbphone."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "dumbphone",
          "dumbphone#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "dumb phone"
}

Download raw JSONL data for dumb phone meaning in English (2.4kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-08-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-08-05 using wiktextract (872fc7b and 4deed51). 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.