walkie-talkie

See also: walkie talkie

English

Alternative forms

• walkie talkie
• walky-talky

Etymology

From walking +‎ talking.

Noun

walkie-talkie (plural walkie-talkies)

walkie-talkie

1. A portable, bidirectional radio transceiver, usually one of a pair.
   • 1962 July, “The Irish Scene”, in Modern Railways, page 11:

     It is intended to equip the yard foremen and shunters with "walkie-talkie" apparatus to keep them in close touch with the control office.

   • 2009, L. K. Bandyopadhyay, S. K. Chaulya, P. K. Mishra, Wireless Communication in Underground Mines: RFID-based Sensor Networking, Springer,, →ISBN:

     A walkie-talkie is a handheld, portable, two-way radio transceiver. It includes a half-duplex channel (only one radio transmits at a time, though any number can listen) and a push-to-talk switch that starts transmission.

2. (rare) A walk and talk.
   • 1947, Nero Wolfe, Too Many Women: A Nero Wolfe Novel:

     It could be that her walkie-talkie with Naylor had concerned a private matter not connected with what was about to happen to him, ...

   • 1993, B. Kaye Olson, Energy Secrets for Tired Mothers on the Run, Health Communications,, →ISBN, page 153:

     Go on a walkie-talkie. Everyone goes on a 15-minute brisk walk and talks about their day.

Translations

portable radio

• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܦܪܵܣܡܲܠܵܠܵܐ m (prasmālala)
• Belarusian: ра́цыя f (rácyja)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 步話機 / 步话机 (zh) (bùhuàjī), 對講機 / 对讲机 (zh) (duìjiǎngjī)

• Czech: vysílačka f
• Danish: walkie-talkie c
• Dutch: walkie-talkie
• Finnish: radiopuhelin (fi)
• French: talkie-walkie (fr) m, portatif (fr) m, walkie-talkie (fr) m, émetteur-récepteur portatif m
• Galician: walkie-talkie (gl) m
• German: Walkie-Talkie (de) n, Handfunkgerät (de) n
• Greenlandic: radioaraq angallattagaq
• Hungarian: adóvevő (hu)
• Icelandic: labbrabbtæki n
• Japanese: トランシーバー (ja) (toranshībā), ウォーキートーキー (wōkītōkī)
• Korean: 워키토키 (wokitoki)
• Malay: walkie-talkie
• Polish: krótkofalówka f
• Portuguese: walkie-talkie (pt) m
• Romanian: stație (ro)
• Russian: ра́ция (ru) f (rácija), приёмопереда́тчик (ru) m (prijomoperedátčik), уо́ки-то́ки (ru) n (uóki-tóki), во́ки-то́ки (ru) n (vóki-tóki)
• Spanish: walkie-talkie m, radio portátil m, wokitoki m
• Turkish: telsiz (tr)
• Ukrainian: ра́ція (uk) f (rácija)
• Vietnamese: máy bộ đàm (vi)

Danish

Etymology

From English walkie-talkie, from walk and talk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɔːrkitɔːrki/, [ˌwɒːɡ̊iˈtˢɒːɡ̊i]

Noun

walkie-talkie c (singular definite walkie-talkien, plural indefinite walkie-talkier)

1. walkie-talkie

Inflection

Declension of walkie-talkie

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	walkie-talkie	walkie-talkien	walkie-talkier	walkie-talkierne
genitive	walkie-talkies	walkie-talkiens	walkie-talkiers	walkie-talkiernes

Synonyms

• walkie

French

Etymology

From English walkie-talkie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɔ.ki.tɔ.ki/

Noun

walkie-talkie m (plural walkie-talkies)

1. (North America, obsolete) walkie-talkie

Further reading

• “walkie-talkie”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Galician

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English walkie-talkie.

Noun

walkie-talkie m (plural walkie-talkies)

1. walkie-talkie

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English walkie-talkie.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈwɔ.ki ˈtɔ.ki/

Noun

walkie-talkie m (plural walkie-talkies)

1. walkie-talkie (portable communication radio)

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English walkie-talkie.

Noun

walkie-talkie n (plural walkie-talkie)

1. walkie-talkie

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	walkie-talkie	walkie-talkiele		walkie-talkie	walkie-talkiele
genitive-dative	walkie-talkie	walkie-talkielui		walkie-talkie	walkie-talkielor
vocative	walkie-talkie			walkie-talkielor

Spanish

Alternative forms

• walkie talkie

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English walkie-talkie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌwoki ˈtoki/ [ˌwo.ki ˈt̪o.ki]

Noun

walkie-talkie m (plural walkie-talkies)

1. walkie-talkie

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.

Further reading

• “walkie-talkie”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10