megaphone

See also: Megaphone and mégaphone

English

A swim lifeguard speaking through a megaphone

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛɡ.əˌfəʊn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛɡəˌfoʊn/

Etymology 1

From mega- ‎ -phone.

Noun

megaphone (plural megaphones)

1. A portable, usually hand-held, funnel-shaped device that is used to amplify a person’s natural voice toward a targeted direction.

   Synonyms: (US) bullhorn, speaking trumpet

2. (figuratively) Mouthpiece or promoter; one who speaks for or publicizes on behalf of another.
   • 2018 June 6, Arwa Mahdawi, “Michael Pack: the Bannon ally critics fear will become Trump's global propagandist”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     If Pack does become head of the BBG, critics fear that he will turn Voice of America and the other BBG networks into a megaphone for Trump.

Hypernyms

• loudhailer, blowhorn

Derived terms

• megaphonic
• megaphonist

Translations

portable device used to amplify a person's voice

• Albanian: megafon (sq) m
• Arabic: مُكَبِّر صَوْت m (mukabbir ṣawt), بُوق m (būq)

  Moroccan Arabic: بوق m (būq)

• Armenian: մեգաֆոն (hy) (megafon), ռուպոր (hy) (ṙupor) (colloquial)
• Azerbaijani: megafon
• Belarusian: мегафо́н m (mjehafón), ру́пар m (rúpar), гучнагавары́цель m (hučnahavarýcjelʹ)
• Bulgarian: ру́пор (bg) m (rúpor), мегафо́н m (megafón), високоговори́тел (bg) m (visokogovorítel)
• Burmese: အော်လန် (my) (aulan)
• Catalan: megàfon m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 大聲公／大声公 (daai⁶ seng¹ gung¹)

  Mandarin: 擴音器／扩音器 (zh) (kuòyīnqì)

• Czech: megafon m
• Danish: megafon c
• Dutch: megafoon (nl) m
• Esperanto: megafono
• Estonian: megafon
• Finnish: megafoni (fi), huutotorvi
• French: porte-voix (fr) m, portevoix (fr), mégaphone (fr) m
• Galician: megáfono m
• Georgian: მეგაფონი (megaponi)
• German: Megafon (de) n, (also fig.) Sprachrohr (de) n, Sprechtrichter m, (colloquial) Flüstertüte (de) f
• Greek: μεγάφωνο (el) n (megáfono), τηλεβόας (el) m (tilevóas), χωνί (el) n (choní), ντουντούκα (el) f (ntountoúka)
• Hebrew: מֵגָפוֹן \ מגאפון (he) m (megafon)
• Hindi: मेगाफ़ोन m (megāfon)
• Hungarian: megafon (hu)
• Ido: megafono (io)
• Indonesian: megafon (id), corong suara (id)
• Italian: megafono (it) m
• Japanese: メガホン (ja) (megahon), 伝音器 (でんおんき, den'onki)
• Kazakh: мегафон (megafon)
• Khmer: គ្រឿងបំពងសំឡេង (krɨəng bɑmpɔɔng sɑmleing)
• Korean: 메가폰 (megapon), 전음기(傳音器) (jeoneumgi), 경음기(警音機) (gyeong'eumgi) (North Korea), 확성기(擴聲器) (ko) (hwakseonggi)
• Kyrgyz: мегафон (megafon)
• Latin: megaphonum, megaphonium
• Latvian: megafons m
• Lithuanian: megafonas m
• Luxembourgish: Megaphon m
• Malay: megafon
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: megafon m

  Nynorsk: megafon m

• Persian: مگافون (megâfôn)
• Plautdietsch: Spräakjrua n
• Polish: megafon (pl) m
• Portuguese: megafone (pt) m
• Romanian: megafon (ro) n
• Russian: мегафо́н (ru) m (megafón), ру́пор (ru) m (rúpor), громкоговори́тель (ru) m (gromkogovorítelʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ме̏гафо̄н m

  Roman: mȅgafōn (sh) m

• Slovak: megafón m
• Slovene: megafón m
• Spanish: megáfono m
• Swedish: megafon (sv) c
• Tagalog: panalingagngag
• Tajik: мегафон (megafon)
• Thai: โทรโข่ง (th) (too-rá-kòong)
• Turkish: megafon (tr)
• Ukrainian: мегафо́н m (mehafón), ру́пор m (rúpor), гучномо́вець m (hučnomóvecʹ)
• Uzbek: megafon (uz)
• Vietnamese: loa phóng thanh, loa (vi)
• Volapük: spikamahorn, spikamarüd
• Walloon: hôt-pårleu (wa) m
• Welsh: megaffon m

Verb

megaphone (third-person singular simple present megaphones, present participle megaphoning, simple past and past participle megaphoned)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To use a megaphone; to speak through a megaphone.

Etymology 2

Named for the root Aniba megaphylla ‎ -one.

Noun

megaphone (uncountable)

1. (organic chemistry) A cytotoxic neolignan obtained from the laurel Aniba megaphylla.