phonograph Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun machine in which rotating records cause a stylus to vibrate and the vibrations are amplified acoustically or electronically
    record player.

WordNet

Pho"no*graph noun
Etymology
Phono- + -graph.
Definitions
  1. A character or symbol used to represent a sound, esp. one used in phonography.
  2. (Physics) An instrument for the mechanical registration and reproduction of audible sounds, as articulate speech, etc. It consists of a rotating cylinder or disk covered with some material easily indented, as tinfoil, wax, paraffin, etc., above which is a thin plate carrying a stylus. As the plate vibrates under the influence of a sound, the stylus makes minute indentations or undulations in the soft material, and these, when the cylinder or disk is again turned, set the plate in vibration, and reproduce the sound.

Webster 1913