burner phone

noun

: a prepaid cell phone that is not bound to a contract with a carrier (see carrier sense 7b) and is usually intended to be disposed of after use

She said he returned a short time later, got a lot of cash, then left again with the drugs and money after talking to an unidentified person on a burner phone.

—Kurt Helin

called also burner

Examples of burner phone in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Cantrell also said that Ashley Ketcherside charged $1,000 per hour for her services, which detectives noted is consistent with what was seen in her burner phone. —Shambhavi Rimal, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 15 Apr. 2026

In court Wednesday, Heuermann admitted strangling all seven women to death and dumping their bodies along Gilgo Beach and having used burner phones to contact them. —Matt Lavietes, NBC news, 8 Apr. 2026

Heuermann was linked to those killings by burner phones used to rendezvous with the victims, as well as DNA from hairs found on some of the victims. —Christine Pelisek, PEOPLE, 8 Apr. 2026

For each murder, Heuermann used a different burner phone to contact his victims, prosecutors say. —Emma Seiwell, New York Daily News, 7 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1996, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for burner phone

• acetone
• anglophone
• baritone
• bourguignon
• buspirone
• chaperon
• chaperone
• cobblestone
• collarbone
• cornerstone
• cortisone
• dictaphone