cellular phone
compound.compound. a small telephone that you can carry with you and use anywhere. Most people today just call it a mobile phone or a cell phone.
compound. a portable telephone that connects to a wireless network via radio waves. While technically accurate, the term is increasingly replaced by 'mobile phone' or 'smartphone' in contemporary usage.
He keeps his cellular phone in his pocket.
Before smartphones became common, a cellular phone was primarily used for voice calls and simple text messages.
The rapid expansion of cellular phone networks in the late twentieth century fundamentally altered the accessibility of telecommunications in rural and developing regions.
Derived from the adjective cellular, referring to the division of a geographic area into small sections or cells, each served by its own low-power transmitter. The term was utilised in technical papers by Bell Laboratories researchers in 1947 to describe this network architecture.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Often shortened to 'cell phone' in American English or 'mobile' in British English.
Last updated July 22, 2026