wireless - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From wire +‎ -less.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwaɪə.ləs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwaɪ(jə)ɹ.ləs/
• Hyphenation: wire‧less

wireless (not comparable)

1. Not having any wires.
2. Functioning without an external wired connection

   wireless headphones

   wireless charging

   • 1914, L. Frank Baum, Tik-Tok of Oz:

     Ozma, observing this action in her Magic Picture, at once caught up a similar instrument from a table beside her and held it to her own ear. The two instruments recorded the same delicate vibrations of sound and formed a wireless telephone, an invention of the Wizard. Those separated by any distance were thus enabled to converse together with perfect ease.

• cordless

• wired

wireless (usually uncountable, plural (dated) wirelesses)

1. (uncountable) The medium of radio communication.

   Only about a hundred years ago, wireless was a new technology.

   • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 3, in Death on the Centre Court:

     It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless. And results are all that concern me. […]”

2. (uncountable, networking) Wireless connectivity to a computer network.

   If your wireless stops working, try restarting the router.

3. (dated, chiefly British) A radio set.

   Let's switch on the wireless and listen to the news.

   • 2021, Otto English, Fake History, page 2:

     In the corner of that dark back room stood a black and white television—their one nod to modernity—and beside it, two old wirelesses and a headset that had not seen action since the TV arrived.

• coconut wireless
• wirelessless
• wireless operator

wireless (third-person singular simple present wirelesses, present participle wirelessing, simple past and past participle wirelessed)

1. (dated or obsolete) To send a message by wireless (by radio)

   • 1919, William Charles Henry Wood, Flag and Fleet:

     At 3:30 A.M. a huge Zeppelin flew across the British battle line, wirelessing down to any Germans still to the westward the best way to get home.

   • 1933, Robert Byron, First Russia, Then Tibet‎^[1], Part II, Chapter 1:

     Just outside Piraeus we circled low over a capsized fishing-boat, a grisly wreck in the crystal blue water, and wirelessed a description of it to the mainland.

• weirless

Unadapted borrowing from English wireless.

wireless m (invariable)

1. wireless (transmission without wires)

wireless (invariable)

1. (computing) wireless

Borrowed from English wireless.

wireless m (uncountable)

1. (Guernsey) wireless, radio

Unadapted borrowing from English wireless.

wireless f (invariable)

1. (networking) wireless (wireless connectivity to a computer network)

wireless (invariable)

1. (of hardware) wireless (communicating without wired connections)

• sem fio (Brazil) / sem fios (Portugal)