Standard Lemma guide

microphone

noun · verb · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈmaɪ.kɹəˌfəʊn/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Canada, General-American: /ˈmaɪ.kɹəˌfoʊn/
  • Canada, General-American: [ˈmʌɪ̯.kɹəˌfoʊ̯n] Canadian raising
  • Canada: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Australian: /ˈmɑe.kɹəˌfəʉn/
  • New-Zealand: /ˈmaɪ.kɹəˌfɐʉn/
  • New-Zealand: [ˈmɑe̯.kɹəˌfɐʉ̯n]
  • CMU ARPABET: M AY1 K R AH0 F OW2 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A device (transducer) used to convert sound waves into a varying electric current; normally fed into an amplifier and either recorded or transmitted over radio.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A speaking trumpet or hearing trumpet; an acoustic device to concentrate or amplify sound.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

verb

Meaning 3

To put one or more microphones on or in.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

device for converting sound waves into electrical energy

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: mike

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: electro-acoustic transducer

Narrower terms: bug, condenser microphone, capacitor microphone, crystal microphone, directional microphone, spike mike

History

Etymology

From micro- + -phone.

Across languages

Translations

123 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: mikrofoon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Albanian: mikrofon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Arabic: مِيكْرُوفُون (mikrufūn) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Arabic: مَيْكْرُوفُون (maykrufūn) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Arabic: مِذْيَاع (miḏyāʕ) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Armenian: միկրոֆոն (mikrofon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Armenian: խոսափող (xosapʻoġ) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Azerbaijani: mikrofon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Bashkir: микрофон (mikrofon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Basque: mikrofono — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Belarusian: мікрафо́н (mikrafón) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Bengali: মাইক্রোফোন (maikrōphōn) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Bulgarian: микрофо́н (mikrofón) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Burmese: ဓာတ်ခွက် (dhathkwak) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Burmese: မိုက် (muik) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Catalan: micròfon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Chinese Cantonese: 咪高峯 (mai1 gou1 fung1) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Chinese Cantonese: 咪高峰 (mai1 gou1 fung1) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Chinese Cantonese: 傳聲器 /传声器 (cyun4 sing1 hei3) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Chinese Cantonese: 咪 (mai1) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Chinese Cantonese: 咪頭 /咪头 — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Hakka Chinese: 麥克 /麦克 (mai-khù, mai-kú, mái-kù) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Chinese: 話筒 /话筒 (ōe-tâng) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Chinese: mài-kù — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Chinese: mái-khù — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Chinese: mái-khó-hong — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Chinese Mandarin: 麥克風 /麦克风 (màikèfēng) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Chinese Mandarin: 話筒 /话筒 (huàtǒng) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Chinese Mandarin: 傳聲器 /传声器 (chuánshēngqì) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Chinese Mandarin: 微音器 (wéiyīnqì, wēiyīnqì) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Crimean Tatar: mikrofon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Czech: mikrofon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Danish: mikrofon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Dutch: microfoon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Esperanto: mikrofono — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Estonian: mikrofon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Finnish: mikrofoni — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Finnish: mikki — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • French: microphone — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Galician: micrófono — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Georgian: მიკროფონი (miḳroponi) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • German: Mikrofon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Greek: μικρόφωνο (mikrófono) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Gujarati: માઇક્રોફોન (māikrophon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Haitian Creole: mikwofòn — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Hebrew: מִיקְרוֹפוֹן (mikrofón) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Hindi: अणुभाष (aṇubhāṣ) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Hindi: माइक्रोफ़ोन (māikrofon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Hindi: माइक (māik) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Hungarian: mikrofon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Icelandic: hljóðnemi — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Icelandic: míkrófónn — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Icelandic: mæk — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Ido: mikrofono — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Indonesian: mikrofon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Indonesian: pelantang — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Irish: micreafón — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Italian: microfono — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Japanese: マイクロフォン (maikurofon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Japanese: マイク (maiku) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • S'gaw Karen: ကလုၢ်ဒၢ (ka lu̱ duh) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Kazakh: микрофон (mikrofon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Khmer: មីក្រូ (miikroo) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Korean: 마이크로폰 (maikeuropon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Korean: 마이크 (maikeu) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Central Kurdish: میکرۆفۆن (mîkrofon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Kyrgyz: микрофон (mikrofon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Lao: ໄມໂຄຣໂຟນ (mai khō fōn) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Latvian: mikrofons — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Lithuanian: mikrofonas — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Luganda: omuzindaalo — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Luxembourgish: Mikro — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Macedonian: микрофо́н (mikrofón) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Malay: mikrofon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Māori: hopuoro — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Marathi: अणुभाष (aṇubhāṣ) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Mongolian: микрофон (mikrofon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Nepali: अणुभाष (aṇubhāṣ) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Norman: microphône — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Norwegian Bokmål: mikrofon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Odia: ଅଣୁଭାଷ (aṇubhāṣa) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Iranian Persian: میکْروفون (mikrofon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Iranian Persian: صِدابَر (sedâbar) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Polish: mikrofon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Portuguese: microfone — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Romanian: microfon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Russian: микрофо́н (mikrofón) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Sanskrit: अणुभाष (aṇubhāṣa) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Scottish Gaelic: microfòn — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Scottish Gaelic: togair-fuaime — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Serbo-Croatian: ми̏крофо̄н — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Serbo-Croatian: mȉkrofōn — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Sinhalese: මයික්රොපෝනය (mayikropōnaya) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Sinhalese: මෛක්රොනය (maikronaya) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Sinhalese: ශබ්දවාහිනිය (śabdawāhiniya) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Slovak: mikrofón — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Slovene: mikrofon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Southern Altai: микрофон (mikrofon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Spanish: micrófono — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Swahili: kinasa sauti — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Swahili: mikrofoni — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Swedish: mikrofon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Tagalog: miktinig — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Tajik: микрофон (mikrofon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Tamil: ஒலிவாங்கி (olivāṅki) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Tatar: микрофон (mikrofon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Thai: ไมโครโฟน (mai-kroo-foon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Turkish: mikrofon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Turkmen: mikrofon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Ukrainian: мікрофо́н (mikrofón) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Urdu: مائِکْرو فون (māikro fon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Urdu: مائِکْروفون (māikrofon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Uyghur: مىكروفون (mikrofon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Uzbek: mikrofon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Vietnamese: máy vi âm — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Vietnamese: micrô — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Vietnamese: mi-crô — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Vietnamese: ống thu thanh — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Volapük: mikrofon — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Yiddish: מיקראָפֿאָן (mikrofon) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Zazaki: mikrofon (diq) — transducer of sound waves to electricity
  • Spanish: microfonear — to put one or more microphones on or in.
  • Spanish: microfonar — to put one or more microphones on or in.
Real reading context

microphone in complete knowledge articles