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

Let a Hundred Websites Bloom The Internet and the smartphone have become formidable tools for the Chinese government to maintain tight control over society. — Conor Heffernan, The New York Review of Books, 3 Oct. 2026

Zhou, a Dartmouth grad and former investment banker, is now betting that the most interesting market for AI isn’t the consumer smartphone nor the corporate office, but rather the shop floor. — Nicholas Gordon, Fortune, 2 Oct. 2026

My novel Blow Yourself Up begins when smartphones make their way into high schools and follows the rise of platforms and influencers, ending just before the dawn of AI. — Literary Hub, 2 Oct. 2026

Word spread quickly, and soon a throng of smartphone-wielding citizens had surrounded the immigration enforcement van, which couldn’t move because one enterprising, early-arriving activist had slid underneath it. — Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 2 Oct. 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)