telephone book

noun

"telephone-book" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“telephone book” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
14
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A printed telephone directory.

Key facts for telephone book
PropertyValue
Headwordtelephone book
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters14
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “telephone book” sits in English frequency

telephone book falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

telephone book is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A printed telephone directory.".

Zero misspellings are on record for telephone book in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is telephone book, spelled T-E-L-E-P-H-O-N-E- -B-O-O-K.

Definition

  1. 1
    A printed telephone directory.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "telephone book"?
"telephone book" is spelled T-E-L-E-P-H-O-N-E- -B-O-O-K.
What does "telephone book" mean?
As a noun, "telephone book" means: A printed telephone directory.
What language does "telephone book" come from?
"telephone book" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “telephone book”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is T-E-L-E-P-H-O-N-E- -B-O-O-K - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list