smartphone

noun

smart·​phone ˈsmärt-ˌfōn 

variants or less commonly smart phone

plural smartphones also smart phones

: a cell phone that includes additional software functions (such as email or an Internet browser)

Examples of smartphone in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Arm's chip designs power most of the world's smartphones and are increasingly used in AI data centers and edge computing devices. —Dylan Butts, CNBC, 5 Feb. 2026

The venue prohibits recording equipment apart from smartphones. —Mars Salazar, Austin American Statesman, 5 Feb. 2026

Such a partnership would be designed to undermine China’s stranglehold on the mining of key elements that make everything from smartphones to electric cars and fighter jets tick, the foundations of very real economic value that could rival the strategic importance of petroleum. —Tristan Bove, Fortune, 5 Feb. 2026

Though the technology took decades to mature into today’s DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, digital imaging is now common — built into smartphones and used worldwide every day. —Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 4 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1996, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for smartphone

• alone
• atone
• backbone
• bemoan
• bluestone
• breastbone
• brownstone
• capstone
• cheekbone
• condone
• curbstone
• cyclone

Kids Definition

smartphone

noun

smart·​phone ˈsmärt-ˌfōn 

: a cell phone that includes additional functions (as email or an Internet browser)