answerphone

English

Alternative forms

• ansaphone, ansafone
• answer phone

Etymology

From answer +‎ (tele)phone.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈæn.sɜː(ɹ)ˌfəʊn/, /ˈæn.səˌfəʊn/

Noun

answerphone (plural answerphones)

1. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Synonym of answering machine, especially one built into a telephone.

   I keep trying to call her, but all I get is the answerphone.

   • 1999 February 3, Anthony Horowitz et al., “Strangler's Wood”, in Midsomer Murders:

     That was the bloody answerphone. She must have left already.

   • 2012, Theodore Dalrymple, If Symptoms Persist:

     It started with a message in my office on that fiendish modern invention, second in its monstrousness only to the television, the answerphone.