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voicemail

Other forms: voicemails

The system that allows you to leave your friend a message when they don't answer their phone is called voicemail. The message you leave can be called a voicemail as well.

Leave your mom a recorded message when she doesn't pick up your call — that's a voicemail. The word was coined by a company that first developed a voicemail system available across the U.S. — earlier systems called them "voice messages." Originally, Voicemail was capitalized and trademarked, but it quickly became the general term for electronic telephone audio messages.

Definitions of voicemail
  1. noun
    a computerized system for answering and routing telephone calls; telephone messages can be recorded and stored and relayed
    synonyms: voice mail
    see moresee less
    type of:
    telephone, telephony
    transmitting speech at a distance
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