Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A record player; a phonograph.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An instrument for permanently recording and reproducing sounds by means of a tracing made on the principle of the phonautogram and etched into some solid material. A clean metallic or vitreous surface is covered with a delicate etching-ground, and upon this is traced a phonautographic record; the surface is then subjected to the action of an etching-agent, which eats the record-lines into it. (See
phonautograph .) Erom these etched lines the sound is reproduced by means of a stylus attached to any sonorous body. The instrument was invented by E. Berliner
Wiktionary
- n. A historic wind-up record player that acoustically reproduces sound from a disk rather than a cylinder record.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An instrument for recording, preserving, and reproducing sounds, the record being a tracing of a phonautograph etched in some solid material. Reproduction is accomplished by means of a system attached to an elastic diaphragm. This older term is almost completely replaced for modern devices by the word phonograph (or hi-fi), and technological changes have made the term sound antiquated, and it is usually used to refer to older non-electronic versions of the phonograph.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an antique record player; the sound of the vibrating needle is amplified acoustically
Etymologies
- Originally a trademark.
Examples
“The song "It" that was recently posted on said the gramophone is another highlight, with a wonderful accordian part.”
“Decided the gramophone was a bit unwieldy and switched to MP3 myself.”
Going against my better judgment and being proved right and wrong at the same time
“The gramophone is a machine for recording such tunes as certain shops and other organisations choose to sell.”
“The flowers on the table are in a German shell for vase, and the gramophone was another village "find.”
“Then a gramophone is a necessity, and all kinds of records will be necessary -- Beethoven, Stravinsky, Rimski-Korsikoff, Harry Lauder, Fox”
“Bury That bit about Sousa being scared of the gramophone was a great comparison.”
“Marty: The gramophone is the origin of recording and sharing music.”
“Radio and the gramophone were the only new marvels of the music world to reach India till the middle of the century.”
“Aldous Huxley worries in "The Spoken Word" about the future of book writing and speculates about whether writing will migrate entirely to the "gramophone" within a few years.”
The Wall Street Journal: Aural Report: When Authors Speak for Themselves
“This hospital is very nice and when you come down from London youll see all the flowers and the gramophone which is a fair treat.”
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 153, October 31, 1917
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘gramophone’.
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phono-, phon-, -phony
relating to sound
phonograph, phonics, phonology, telephony, phoneme, phone, telephone, phonautograph, phonetic, phonebook, phonography, phonolite and 107 more...
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Wordnik Spam Inquiries
We get a lot of spam emails at Wordnik that fit this pattern: "Mr Bob Wilson here and i will like to know if you do have X for sale". The words on this list represent a subset of such requested items.
burnisher, shaper vise, salt spreader, soil pulveriser, bible, flutes, baffles, crucifix cross, proofer, gazebo, real bubble wrap, roller tray and 206 more...
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Phones, But Not Telephones!
These are musical instruments or mythological figures instead!
saxophone, heckelphone, sarrusophone, mellophone, sousaphone, lamellophone, metallophone, xylophone, vibraphone, crystallophone, pyrophone, idiophone and 53 more...

brtom "Outside the gramophone begins to blare The Holy City." Joyce, Ulysses, 15 Dec 31, 2007