Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

telling bone

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.34 in modern English

Syllables: telling bone
IPA

14

Scrabble Score

11

Letters

1

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Humorous

Example Sentences

"“Oh great magician! Conjure more voices with thy telling bone.”"
"His eyes widened. The box contained the Divine Egg! The strange sorcerer who was muttering into the telling-bone had found lots of them."
"Lately, Fergus has been even more insufferable: he's in love, a piece of intelligence I winkled out of the elder curmudgeon, his grandfather, the Laird of Gunning, on the telling bone last night."
"When we land I'll give you a tinkle on the telling bone."
"She's visiting her sister in Launceston and I spoke to her on the telling bone last night."

Etymology

A Hobson-Jobson based on interpreting telephone as telling + bone; coined by British screenwriter Richard Carpenter for the TV series Catweazle.

Usage

Humorous

Inflected Forms

telling bones (plural)

Questions

What does telling bone mean?: The telephone.
Where does telling bone come from?: A Hobson-Jobson based on interpreting telephone as telling + bone; coined by British screenwriter Richard Carpenter for the TV series Catweazle.

How to pronounce telling bone

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “telling bone”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “telling bone”.
Repeat and practice — Say “telling bone” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.