phone book Hear it!

phone book definition - telecom
  1. A book, printed annually on paper, that contains listings of telephone subscribers who wish to be listed. The white pages list subscribers in alphabetical order, with larger books typically separating residence and business listings. The yellow pages list business subscribers alphabetically by business type and feature advertisements that contain additional information about those businesses. Local phone books are free to subscribers in reasonable quantities. Additional phone books and out-of-area phone books used to be free, but that was many years ago. Subscribers who connected service after the publishing deadline are not listed in the phone book, but are listed in supplements available to information operators. Calls to information used to be free, but that was many years ago. Use the phone book when you can -- it's much less expensive. Oh dear, I almost forgot: Be nice to your mother, floss daily, and recycle.
  2. An electronic version, or soft copy, of a printed phone book. Electronic white pages and yellow pages are available online on the World Wide Web. See also soft copy and World Wide Web.
  3. A user-programmable electronic directory of frequently called numbers stored in system memory and accessible for autodialing applications.

Webster's New World Telecom Dictionary Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Comments
Improve this definition.
Do you have more to add? Share your linguistic knowledge or observation.
/Register to save your comments.