video doorbell

noun

plural video doorbells

: a small security camera that is designed for use on an exterior door, that includes or connects to a doorbell, and that often has a microphone and speaker : doorbell camera

Video doorbells are security cameras that are built into a doorbell.

—Consumer Reports

A video doorbell, sometimes called a doorbell camera, is an outdoor camera placed on someone's front door, either battery-powered or hardwired into an existing doorbell and chime setup. The user gets notified via a mobile app either when someone pushes the doorbell, or when the camera detects motion or a person, depending on its artificial intelligence capabilities.

—Aliza Vigderman and Gabe Turner

Examples of video doorbell in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Philips Hue Secure Video Doorbell Philips Hue showed off its first video doorbell at IFA alongside a number of other smart home products, including a new Hue bridge and strip lights. —Andrew Gebhart, PC Magazine, 8 Sep. 2025

Jamie Siminoff The 48-year-old founder of Ring, the smart doorbell company that Amazon acquired for over $1 billion in 2018, Siminoff created the world’s first Wi-Fi video doorbell in his garage. —Dave Smith, Fortune, 5 Sep. 2025

Family can set up video doorbells to show who is visiting an older adult. —Nina A. Kohn, Forbes.com, 2 Sep. 2025

One of the Alexa Fund’s most notable investments was in video doorbell maker Ring, which Amazon later acquired in 2018 for $1 billion. —Annie Palmer, CNBC, 24 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1980, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for video doorbell

• mademoiselle
• materiel
• subparallel
• antiparallel
• antipersonnel
• bagatelle
• caravel
• carousel
• carrousel
• citadel
• clientele
• commonweal