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

The great monoculture of which Parton was the apogee began to fall apart with the advent of cable television in the 1980s and was eventually atomized completely by the internet. — David Kamp, HollywoodReporter, 27 Aug. 2026

SureWest expanded into internet and cable television service but faced costly competition from larger companies including AT&T and Comcast, according to previous Bee reporting. — Camryn Dadey, Sacbee.com, 26 Aug. 2026

Their clear ideological viewpoints, brands, and the willingness of most of their personalities to stick around have insulated networks like Fox News and MS NOW from the sharp decline in viewership eating away at much of the rest of cable television. — Max Tani, semafor.com, 19 Aug. 2026

Jones also appeared on cable television talk shows and wrote opinion pieces for newspapers. — Latoya Gayle, PEOPLE, 10 Aug. 2026

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