landline

noun

land·​line ˈland-ˌlīn 

variants or less commonly land line

1

: a line of transportation or communication on land

especially : a telephone line that transmits signals from one station to another directly along a wire without the use of radio waves

It reminds me of the tipping point several years ago when people realized they no longer needed a telephone landline and would do just fine with their cell phones.

—Rana Foroohar

—often used before another noun

a landline phone

a landline network

2

: a telephone that connects by wire : a landline telephone

Of course, if you're really worried, you could ditch your cell phone for a quaint landline.

—Kiera Butler

Examples of landline in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Its landline, cellular, and fall detection coverage are a bit more expensive than the competition, but the system delivered the fastest overall response times and the best portable help button range in our tests. —John R. Delaney, PC Magazine, 6 Apr. 2026

The government released hundreds of photos of that day — showing officials talking on landline phones and videoconferencing on large screens — in response to a Freedom of Information Act request in 2015. —Rachel Treisman, NPR, 3 Apr. 2026

The lights go out and a landline rings. —Chris Gardner, HollywoodReporter, 31 Mar. 2026

The duo’s finely tuned eye for color informed the house’s open-plan living area, conceived as a series of interconnected nooks—one for mixing cocktails, another for playing records, and a third for taking calls on a throwback landline. —Laura Regensdorf, Architectural Digest, 25 Mar. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1865, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for landline

• affine
• airline
• align
• aline
• assign
• baseline
• beamline
• benign
• bloodline
• bovine
• byline
• canine

Kids Definition

landline

noun

land·​line -ˌ(d)līn 

: a line of communication (as by telephone) consisting of a cable laid on land