ringtone

See also: ring tone

English

Alternative forms

• ring tone, ring-tone

Etymology

From ring +‎ tone.

Noun

ringtone (plural ringtones)

1. The sound made by a telephone when ringing.
   • 1975, LQ Krasin, RD Mccallum, Ringing generator for telephone station terminal - US Patent 3,886,321:

     voltage generator ringtone for installation in terminal stations of telephone communication systems for carrier wave

   • 1980, Journal of Mechanical Design, page 229:

     The transducers used to measure cavity dynamic pressure and reed dynamic displacement are calibrated before each test, the ringtone oscillator assembly produces a sinusoidal driving pressure, with at most, a few small harmonics.

   • 1999, B. Schweber, “Telephony Tone Generator Rings Long Loops”, in Reed Business Information:

     Introduces LT1684, a ringtone-generator integrated circuit (IC) for telephone systems from Linear Technology in California. Elimination of need for optoisolators; Function of active multipole filter within the IC; Adjustment of cadence, frequency and amplitude information;

   • 2009, J Kates, R Miller, System and method for providing calling-party identification and/or calling-party or called-party ringback services - US Patent 7,602,901:

     The source and destination nodes may be equipped with ringtone-generation engines to generate ringtones. Each of the ringtones includes at least one audible tone.

2. A customizable tone used to indicate an incoming call on a telephone, especially a mobile phone.
   • 2004, The Entertainment and Sports Lawyer; Volume 22:

     So even if the primary purpose of a ringtone is to notify the user of an incoming call, the effect of a ringtone played in public cannot be ignored if the reason users choose ringtones is, in part, in order to impress others .

   • 2005, Bill Foust, Mobile Guide to BlackBerry, page 121121:

     This actually downloads the ringtone onto your handheld and displays a screen allowing you to save it, shown in Figure 8.12.

   • 2006, Alex Turner (lyrics and music), “A Certain Romance”, in Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, performed by Arctic Monkeys:

     There's only music so that there's new ringtones

   • 2012, David Pogue, iPhone: The Missing Manual, page 152:

     Using simple audio tools in the iTunes program, you could buy a song for $1, choose a 30-second chunk, pay $1 more for the ringtone, and sync the result to your iPhone.

   • 2019, 100 gecs (lyrics and music), “ringtone”, in 1000 gecs‎^[1]:

     My boy's got his own ringtone / It's the only one I know, it's the only one I know

Derived terms

• ringtone rap
• ringtone oscillator

Translations

sound made by a telephone when ringing

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: نَغْمَة الرَنَّة f (naḡmat ar-ranna), نَغْمَة رَنِين f (naḡmat ranīn), نَغْمَة f (naḡma)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: рингтон (rington)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鈴聲／铃声 (zh) (língshēng), 鈴音／铃音 (língyīn)

• Czech: vyzváněcí melodie f (of a cell phone), vyzváněcí tón m
• Dutch: ringtone (nl) m, beltoon (nl) m
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: soittoääni (fi)
• French: sonnerie (fr) f, sonnerie de téléphone f
• German: Klingelton (de) m
• Greek: please add this translation if you can
• Hebrew: נעימון (he) m (ne'imón), רינגטון (he)
• Hindi: रिंगटोन (hi) (riṅgṭon), रिंग टोन (riṅg ṭon)
• Hungarian: csengőhang (hu)
• Icelandic: hringitónn m
• Indonesian: nada dering
• Italian: suoneria (it) f
• Japanese: 着信音 (ja) (ちゃくしんおん, chakushin'on), 着メロ (chaku-mero), 着信メロディ (chakushin merodī)
• Khmer: សំឡេងរោទ៍ (sɑmleing roo)
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian: ringetone
• Polish: dzwonek (pl) m
• Portuguese: ringtone m, toque (pt) m
• Romanian: ton de apel n
• Russian: звоно́к (ru) m (zvonók), рингто́н (ru) m (ringtón), мело́дия (ru) f (melódija), мело́дия для моби́льного телефо́на f (melódija dlja mobílʹnovo telefóna)
• Spanish: ringtone m, tono de llamada m
• Swedish: ringsignal (sv)
• Telugu: రింగ్‌టోన్ (riṅg‌ṭōn)
• Thai: เสียงเรียกเข้า (sǐiang-rîiak-kâo), ริงโทน
• Turkish: zil sesi
• Vietnamese: nhạc chờ

Verb

ringtone (third-person singular simple present ringtones, present participle ringtoning, simple past and past participle ringtoned)

1. (transitive, intransitive) Of a telephone: to play a ringtone.
   • 2015, Herb Borkland, DOG$, page 15:

     My handheld ringtoned “Happy Days are Here Again.” I withdrew into a quieter corner of Mahogany Bar and stuck a finger in my other ear.

   • 2019, Arthur Slade, Amber Fang (Books 1-3): Boxed Set:

     The cell reception is less than zero here, but my phone was ringtoning away. I did not like the sound of that.

Anagrams

• retoning, Notinger, integron, nitrogen

Dutch

Alternative forms

• ringtoon (unofficial)

Etymology

Borrowed from English ringtone.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈrɪŋ.toːn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ring‧tone

Noun

ringtone m (plural ringtones)

1. ringtone (sound made by a ringing telephone)

   Synonym: beltoon

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English ringtone.

Noun

ringtone m (plural ringtones)

1. ringtone (sound made by a telephone when ringing)

   Synonym: toque

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English ringtone.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rinˈton/ [rĩn̪ˈt̪õn]
• Rhymes: -on

Noun

ringtone m (plural ringtones)

1. ringtone

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.