dial

See also: Dial and dial.

English

Detail of a dial (graduated circular scale with a needle)

Etymology

Its original meaning was 'sundial' and/or 'clock dial', from Latin diālis (“daily, concerning the day”), because of its use in telling the time of day.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈdaɪəɫ/
  • Rhymes: -aɪəl

Noun

dial (plural dials)

A dial (disk with finger holes) on a Swiss telephone
  1. A graduated, circular scale over which a needle moves to show a measurement (such as speed).
  2. A clock face.
  3. A sundial.
  4. A panel on a radio etc showing wavelengths or channels; a knob that is turned to change the wavelength etc.
  5. A disk with finger holes on a telephone; used to select the number to be called.
  6. (Britain, dated) A person's face.
    • 1960: At the sound of the old familiar voice he spun around with something of the agility of a cat on hot bricks, and I saw that his dial, usually cheerful, was contorted with anguish, as if he had swallowed a bad oyster. (P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter IX)
  7. A miner's compass.

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Verb

dial (third-person singular simple present dials, present participle (US) dialing or dialling, simple past and past participle (US) dialed or dialled)

  1. (transitive) To measure or indicate something with a dial.
  2. (transitive) To control or select something with a dial
  3. (transitive) To select a number, or to call someone, on a telephone.
  4. (intransitive) To use a dial or a telephone.

Usage notes

  • Dialing and dialed are more common in the US. Dialling and dialled are more common in the UK.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

Spanish

Noun

dial m (plural diales)

  1. dial

Welsh

Etymology

Cognate with Cornish dyal and Old Irish dígal.

Pronunciation

Noun

dial m (plural dialau or dialon)

  1. revenge

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radicalsoftnasalaspirate
dial ddial nial unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

  • “dial”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies, 2014
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