"numbers station" meaning in English

See numbers station in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: numbers stations [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} numbers station (plural numbers stations)
  1. (radio, espionage) A shortwave radio station characterized by unusual broadcasts, often of artificially generated voices reciting streams of numbers, words, etc., supposedly of coded messages. Translations (shortwave radio station): 數字電台 /数字电台 (shùzì diàntái) (Chinese Mandarin), numeroasema (Finnish), station de nombres [feminine] (French), 乱数放送 (ransū hōsō) (alt: らんすうほうそう) (Japanese), 暗号放送 (angō hōsō) (alt: あんごうほうそう) (Japanese), ナンバーステーション (nanbā sutēshon) (Japanese), номерная радиостанция (nomernaja radiostancija) (Russian), числовая радиостанция (čislovaja radiostancija) (Russian)

Inflected forms

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          "name": "Espionage",
          "orig": "en:Espionage",
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          "name": "Radio",
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              16,
              31
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "October 1986, William O'Connell, “Get On The Air”, in Boys' Life, volume 76, number 10, page 35:",
          "text": "The most common numbers station features a young lady reading the numbers in Spanish. Other stations have both male and female voices reading numbers in Spanish, German, English and Chinese. So far, nobody has been able to decode any of the messages!",
          "type": "quotation"
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          "bold_text_offsets": [
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              69,
              84
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          "ref": "2012, Ripley's Believe It Or Not! (compiler), Ripley's Unbelievable Stories For Guys:",
          "text": "Naturally enough, no government has actually admitted to operating a numbers station, but the suspicion is there.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
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        "A shortwave radio station characterized by unusual broadcasts, often of artificially generated voices reciting streams of numbers, words, etc., supposedly of coded messages."
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        [
          "radio",
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          "station",
          "station"
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          "characterized"
        ],
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          "unusual"
        ],
        [
          "broadcast",
          "broadcast"
        ],
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          "artificially",
          "artificially"
        ],
        [
          "generated",
          "generated"
        ],
        [
          "voice",
          "voice"
        ],
        [
          "reciting",
          "recite"
        ],
        [
          "stream",
          "stream"
        ],
        [
          "number",
          "number"
        ],
        [
          "word",
          "word"
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          "message",
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(radio, espionage) A shortwave radio station characterized by unusual broadcasts, often of artificially generated voices reciting streams of numbers, words, etc., supposedly of coded messages."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "broadcasting",
        "espionage",
        "government",
        "media",
        "military",
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        "radio",
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      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "lang_code": "cmn",
          "roman": "shùzì diàntái",
          "sense": "shortwave radio station",
          "word": "數字電台 /数字电台"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "lang_code": "fi",
          "sense": "shortwave radio station",
          "word": "numeroasema"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "lang_code": "fr",
          "sense": "shortwave radio station",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "station de nombres"
        },
        {
          "alt": "らんすうほうそう",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "lang_code": "ja",
          "roman": "ransū hōsō",
          "sense": "shortwave radio station",
          "word": "乱数放送"
        },
        {
          "alt": "あんごうほうそう",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "lang_code": "ja",
          "roman": "angō hōsō",
          "sense": "shortwave radio station",
          "word": "暗号放送"
        },
        {
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "lang_code": "ja",
          "roman": "nanbā sutēshon",
          "sense": "shortwave radio station",
          "word": "ナンバーステーション"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "lang_code": "ru",
          "roman": "nomernaja radiostancija",
          "sense": "shortwave radio station",
          "word": "номерная радиостанция"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "lang_code": "ru",
          "roman": "čislovaja radiostancija",
          "sense": "shortwave radio station",
          "word": "числовая радиостанция"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "numbers station"
}
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          "text": "The most common numbers station features a young lady reading the numbers in Spanish. Other stations have both male and female voices reading numbers in Spanish, German, English and Chinese. So far, nobody has been able to decode any of the messages!",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
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            [
              69,
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          "ref": "2012, Ripley's Believe It Or Not! (compiler), Ripley's Unbelievable Stories For Guys:",
          "text": "Naturally enough, no government has actually admitted to operating a numbers station, but the suspicion is there.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      "glosses": [
        "A shortwave radio station characterized by unusual broadcasts, often of artificially generated voices reciting streams of numbers, words, etc., supposedly of coded messages."
      ],
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          "radio",
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        "(radio, espionage) A shortwave radio station characterized by unusual broadcasts, often of artificially generated voices reciting streams of numbers, words, etc., supposedly of coded messages."
      ],
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        "broadcasting",
        "espionage",
        "government",
        "media",
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "lang_code": "cmn",
      "roman": "shùzì diàntái",
      "sense": "shortwave radio station",
      "word": "數字電台 /数字电台"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "shortwave radio station",
      "word": "numeroasema"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "shortwave radio station",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "station de nombres"
    },
    {
      "alt": "らんすうほうそう",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "lang_code": "ja",
      "roman": "ransū hōsō",
      "sense": "shortwave radio station",
      "word": "乱数放送"
    },
    {
      "alt": "あんごうほうそう",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "lang_code": "ja",
      "roman": "angō hōsō",
      "sense": "shortwave radio station",
      "word": "暗号放送"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "lang_code": "ja",
      "roman": "nanbā sutēshon",
      "sense": "shortwave radio station",
      "word": "ナンバーステーション"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "lang_code": "ru",
      "roman": "nomernaja radiostancija",
      "sense": "shortwave radio station",
      "word": "номерная радиостанция"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "lang_code": "ru",
      "roman": "čislovaja radiostancija",
      "sense": "shortwave radio station",
      "word": "числовая радиостанция"
    }
  ],
  "word": "numbers station"
}

Download raw JSONL data for numbers station meaning in English (3.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 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.