call

English Online Dictionary. What means call‎? What does call mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English callen, from Old English ċeallian (“to call, shout”) and Old Norse kalla (“to call; shout; refer to as; name”); both from Proto-Germanic *kalzōną (“to call, shout”), from Proto-Indo-European *golH-so- (“voice, cry”), from *gel(H)- (“to vocalize, call, shout”).

Pronunciation

• (MLE) IPA^(key): /koːl/, [qʰʊu̯]
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kôl, IPA^(key): /kɔːl/, [kʰoɫ]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /kɔl/, [kʰɔɫ]
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /kɑl/, [kʰɑɫ]
• (Canada) IPA^(key): [kʰɔːɫ]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /koːl/
• Rhymes: -ɔːl
• Homophone: coll (cot–caught merger)

Verb

call (third-person singular simple present calls, present participle calling, simple past and past participle called or (archaic) call'd)

1. (heading) To reach out with one's voice.
   1. (intransitive) To request, summon, or beckon.
   2. (intransitive) To cry or shout.

      Synonyms: holler, yell; see also Thesaurus:shout
   3. (transitive) To utter in a loud or distinct voice.
   4. (ambitransitive) To contact by telephone.

      Synonyms: drop a line, ring, get on the horn, give someone a ring, give someone a bell; see also Thesaurus:telephone

   5. (transitive) To rouse from sleep; to awaken.

      Synonyms: wake up; see also Thesaurus:awaken
   6. (transitive, jazz) To request that one's band play (a particular tune).
   7. (Yorkshire, transitive) To scold.
2. (heading, intransitive) To visit.
   1. To pay a (social) visit (often used with "on", "round", or "at"; used by salespeople with "again" to invite customers to come again).
   2. To stop at a station or port.

   3. To come to pass; to afflict.
3. (heading) To name, identify, or describe.
   1. (ditransitive) To name or refer to.

      Synonyms: designate, dub, name; see also Thesaurus:denominate
   2. (in passive) Of a person, to have as one's name; of a thing, to have as its name.
   3. To state, or estimate, approximately or loosely; to characterize without strict regard to fact.
   4. (transitive) To claim the existence of some malfeasance; to denounce as.
   5. (obsolete) To disclose the class or character of; to identify.
4. (heading) To declare, or declare in favor of, a predicted or actual result.
   1. (transitive) To declare in advance.

   2. (transitive) To predict.

      Synonyms: augur, foretell; see also Thesaurus:predict

   3. (transitive) To formally recognise a death: especially to announce and record the time, place and fact of a person’s death.
   4. To declare (an effort or project) to be a failure.

   5. (sports) To make a decision as a referee or umpire.

5. (heading, sports) Direct or indirect use of the voice.
   1. (cricket) (of a batsman): To shout directions to the other batsman on whether or not they should take a run.
   2. (baseball, cricket) (of a fielder): To shout to other fielders that he intends to take a catch (thus avoiding collisions).
   3. (cue sports) To tell in advance which shot one is attempting.

      Synonyms: name, nominate; see also Thesaurus:specify

   4. (intransitive, poker) To equal the same amount that other players are currently betting.

   5. (intransitive, poker, proscribed) To match the current bet amount, in preparation for a raise in the same turn. (Usually, players are forbidden to announce one's play this way.)

   6. (transitive) To state, or invoke a rule, in many games such as bridge, craps, jacks, and so on.

6. (transitive, sometimes with for) To require, demand.

7. (transitive, with into) To cause to be verbally subjected to.

8. (transitive, colloquial) To lay claim to an object or role which is up for grabs.
9. (transitive, finance) To announce the early extinction of a debt by prepayment, usually at a premium.
10. (transitive, banking) To demand repayment of a loan.
11. (transitive, computing) To jump to (another part of a program); to perform some operation, returning to the original point on completion.

Usage notes

• In older forms of English, when the pronoun thou was in active use, and verbs used -est for distinct second-person singular indicative forms, the verb call had the form callest, and had calledst for its past tense.
• Similarly, when the ending -eth was in active use for third-person singular present indicative forms, the form calleth was used.
• The sense of naming an object, as with the phrase it’s called a(n), is intended to humiliate a listener when the object is known to be familiar:

Conjugation

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Kashubian: kolowac (United States)

Translations

Noun

call (countable and uncountable, plural calls)

1. A cry or shout.

2. The characteristic cry of a bird or other animal.

3. A beckoning or summoning.
4. A telephone conversation; a phone call.

5. An instance of calling someone on the telephone.

6. A short visit, usually for social purposes.
7. (nautical) A visit by a ship or boat to a port.

8. A decision or judgement.

9. The right to speak at a given time during a debate or other public event; the floor.

10. (finance) Short for call option.
11. (cricket) The act of calling to the other batsman.
12. (cricket) The state of being the batsman whose role it is to call (depends on where the ball goes.)
13. (uncountable) A work shift which requires one to be available when requested, i.e. on call.
14. (computing) The act of jumping to a subprogram, saving the means to return to the original point.
15. A statement of a particular state, or rule, made in many games such as bridge, craps, jacks, and so on.

17. (poker) The act of matching a bet made by a player who has previously bet in the same round of betting.
18. A note blown on the horn to encourage the dogs in a hunt.
19. (nautical) A whistle or pipe, used by the boatswain and his mate to summon the sailors to duty.
20. A pipe or other instrument to call birds or animals by imitating their note or cry. A game call.
21. An invitation to take charge of or serve a church as its pastor.
22. (archaic) Vocation; employment; calling.
23. (US, law) A reference to, or statement of, an object, course, distance, or other matter of description in a survey or grant requiring or calling for a corresponding object, etc., on the land.
24. (informal, slang, prostitution) A meeting with a client for paid sex; hookup; job.
25. (law) A lawyer who was called to the bar (became licensed as a lawyer) in a specified year.
26. (in negative constructions) Need; necessity.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Armenian: քոլ (kʻol)
• → Georgian: ქოლი (koli)

Translations

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈkaʎ]

Etymology 1

Inherited from Latin callis (“alley, narrow street, passageway”). Compare Spanish calle (“street”).

Noun

call m (plural calls)

1. passageway

Related terms

• encallar

Etymology 2

Inherited from Latin callum.

Noun

call m (uncountable)

1. corn

Derived terms

• call de la mà
• callera

Etymology 3

Borrowed from Hebrew קָהָל (qahál, “assembly, synagogue”).

Noun

call m (plural calls)

1. Jewish quarter

   Synonym: jueria

Further reading

• “call” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
• “call”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
• “call” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Chinese

Etymology

From English call.

Pronunciation

Noun

call

1. (chiefly Hong Kong Cantonese) radio call; phone call (Classifier: 個／个 c)
2. (Hong Kong Cantonese) summoning of people
3. (ACG) Wotagei

Verb

call

1. (chiefly Hong Kong Cantonese) to call (with mobile phones, pagers, beepers, etc.)

   call車／call车 [Cantonese]  ―  ko¹ ce¹ [Jyutping]  ―  to call a vehicle, especially a taxi or a van

2. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to summon people

Derived terms

References

• English Loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese

Irish

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Alternative forms

• cál

Noun

call m (genitive singular call)

1. call, need
2. claim, right

Declension

Derived terms

• gan chall (“needlessly”)

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /kal̪ˠ/

Noun

call m (genitive singular caill)

1. Ulster form of coll (“hazel”)

Declension

Mutation

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “call”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “call”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “call”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2025
• Quiggin, E. C. (1906) A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, page 79

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English call.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: call

Noun

call m or f (plural calls)

1. (Internet slang) a call (audio or video conversation)

   Synonym: chamada

Further reading

• “call”, in Dicionário inFormal (in Portuguese), 2006–2025

Scottish Gaelic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʰaul̪ˠ/

Noun

call m (genitive singular calla, plural callaidhean)

1. verbal noun of caill
2. loss
3. waste

Derived terms

• call cumhachd

Mutation

Welsh

Etymology

Possible borrowing from Latin callidus (“wise, clever; cunning”) (and if so, doublet of caled (“hard”)).

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /kaɬ/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /ka(ː)ɬ/
• Rhymes: -aɬ

Adjective

call (feminine singular call, plural call, equative called, comparative callach, superlative callaf)

1. wise, sensible, rational

   Synonyms: doeth, deallus

Derived terms

• angall (“foolish, unwise”)
• callineb (“wisdom, rationality”)
• callio (“to become wise, to wise up”)
• hanner call (“half-witted, crazy”)

Mutation

Further reading

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “call”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies