Cell phone or cellphone?
cell phone is a noun meaning “A portable, wireless telephone, which changes antenna connections seamlessly…”; cellphone is a verb meaning “To make a call to (someone) on a cellphone”. Use cell phone as a noun and cellphone as a verb. cell phone is written as two words and cellphone as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between cell phone and cellphone?
| cell phone | cellphone | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | CanadaUSA portable, wireless telephone, which changes antenna connections seamlessly during travel from one radio reception cell to another without losing the… | informalTo make a call to (someone) on a cellphone |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | cell-phones | cellphones, cellphoning, cellphoned |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈsɛlfəʊn/ /ˈsɛlfoʊn/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 4.5 times per million words |
Sources: cell phone and cellphone in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of cell phone and cellphone
cell phone
- 1
CanadaUSA portable, wireless telephone, which changes antenna connections seamlessly during travel from one radio reception cell to another without losing the party-to-party call connection
- 2
Alternative form of cellphone
- 3
Alternative form of cell phone
- 4
Alternative form of cellphone
cellphone
- 1
Alternative form of cell phone
- 2
informalTo make a call to (someone) on a cellphone
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, cell phone or cellphone?
cell phone is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; cellphone 4.5 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search cell phone vs cellphone?
“cell phone vs cellphone” is searched about 390 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“cellphone vs cell phone”, “cell phone or cellphone”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.