phoneword
Sign in to savethumb|right|Many telephone keypads have letters with the numbers, from which words can be formed. thumb|Sign in Argentina giving the number 0800 555 8736 as 0800 555 TREN Phonewords are mnemonic phrases represented as alphanumeric equivalents of a telephone number. In many countries, the digits on the telephone keypad also have letters assigned. By replacing the digits of a telephone number with the corresponding letters, it is sometimes possible to form a whole or partial word, an acronym, abbreviation, or some other alphanumeric combination.
~10 min read
Encyclopedic overview
12 sectionsContents
- Advantages
- Disadvantages
- Regional variations
- Australia
- Japan
- North America
- Russia
- United Kingdom
- Generating phonewords
- See also
- Notes
- References
thumb|right|Many telephone keypads have letters with the numbers, from which words can be formed. thumb|Sign in Argentina giving the number 0800 555 8736 as 0800 555 TREN Phonewords are mnemonic phrases represented as alphanumeric equivalents of a telephone number. In many countries, the digits on the telephone keypad also have letters assigned. By replacing the digits of a telephone number with the corresponding letters, it is sometimes possible to form a whole or partial word, an acronym, abbreviation, or some other alphanumeric combination.
Phonewords are the most common vanity numbers, although a few all-numeric vanity phone numbers are used. Toll-free telephone numbers are often branded using phonewords; some firms use easily memorable vanity telephone numbers like 1-800 Contacts, 1-800-Flowers, 1-866-RING-RING, or 1-800-GOT-JUNK? as brands for flagship products or names for entire companies.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “phoneword” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.