cable television

noun

: a system of television reception in which signals from distant stations are picked up by a master antenna and sent by cable to the individual receivers of paying subscribers

called also cable TV

Examples of cable television in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

As cable television was beginning its ascent in the late 1980s, live games started appearing on burgeoning networks like ESPN and TNT, and helped fuel their growth and popularity. —John Cassillo, Forbes.com, 21 May 2025

Then, in the 2000s, Ozzy Osbourne became a hit on cable television: The Osbournes was an MTV reality series about the domestic life of his family. —Scott Simon, NPR, 26 July 2025

There was no shortage of tempting options on broadcast and cable television last Thursday: ABC offered two hours of Bachelor in Paradise. —Mark Joyella, Forbes.com, 22 July 2025

In January 2025, after more than three decades on cable television, WWE's weekly flagship Raw program switched to being aired via the Netflix streaming platform. —Marcus K. Dowling, The Tennessean, 16 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1951, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for cable television

• abscission
• collision
• decision
• derision
• division
• elision
• envision
• excision
• incision
• misprision
• precision
• prevision

Kids Definition

cable television

noun

: a system of television reception in which signals from distant stations are picked up by a main antenna and sent by cable to the sets of paying subscribers

called also cable TV