television

See also: televisión, télévision, and télévîsion

English

An early television (sense 2)

Etymology

tele- +‎ vision; first attested in 1900, probably influenced by French télévision from Constantin Perskyi's 1900 paper that was unpublished but presented at a Paris conference.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛlɪˌvɪʒən/, /ˈtɛləˌvɪʒən/, /ˌtɛlɪˈvɪʒən/, /ˌtɛləˈvɪʒən/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪʒən

Noun

television (countable and uncountable, plural televisions)

1. (uncountable) An electronic communication medium that allows the transmission of real-time visual images, and often sound.

   It's a good thing that television doesn't transmit smell.

3. (countable) A device for receiving television signals and displaying them in visual form.

   I have an old television in the study.

4. (uncountable) Collectively, the programs broadcast via the medium of television.

   fifty-seven channels and nothing on television

5. (uncountable, dated) Vision at a distance.
   • 1929, Josephine Tey, The Man in the Queue:

     Half an hour with the manager of Faith Brothers had had the effect of studding the sergeant's habitual simplicity of words and phrases with amazing jewels of technicality. He talked gladly of "lines" and "repeats" and similar profundities, so that Grant had, through his bulk, in a queer television a vivid picture of the manager himself.

   • 1943, Elizabeth Hazelton Haight, Essays on the Greek Romances, Longmans, Green and Co., page 165:

     […] the magic mirror […] which furnished him television of his family and country

Synonyms

• boob tube
• cultural barbiturate
• electric tit
• electronic babysitter
• glass teat
• goggle box
• idiot box
• idiot's lantern
• magic box
• television set
• telly
• the box
• the shit box
• the tube
• TV

 

Derived terms

• cable television
• on television
• televangelism
• televangelist
• televidiot
• television channel
• television network
• television station
• TV

 

Related terms

• televise, televize
• televisional
• televisionally
• televisionary
• televisual

 

Descendants

• → Japanese: テレビジョン (terebijon)
• → Korean: 텔레비전 (tellebijeon)
• → Maltese: televixin
• → Swahili: televisheni

Translations

medium

• Afrikaans: televisie
• Albanian: televizion m
• Amharic: ቴሌቪዥን (televižn)
• Arabic: تِلْفَاز‎ m (tilfāz), تِلِفِزْيُون‎ m (tilifizyūn), تَلْفَزَة‎ f (talfaza)

  Moroccan Arabic: تلفزة‎ (talfaza)

• Aramaic:

  Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܦܪܵܣܚܸܙܘܵܐ‎ m (prasḳizwa)

  Classical Syriac: ܦܪܣ ܚܙܘܐ‎

• Armenian: հեռուստատեսություն (heṙustatesutʿyun)
• Assamese: টিভি (tibhi), দূৰদৰ্শন (durodorxon)
• Asturian: televisión f, televisor m, televisión f
• Azerbaijani: televiziya
• Bashkir: телевидение (televideniye)
• Basque: telebista
• Belarusian: тэлеба́чанне n (teljebáčannje), тэлеві́зія f (teljevízija)
• Bengali: টেলিভিশন (ṭelibhiśon), দূরদর্শন (durdôrśon)
• Breton: skinwel
• Bulgarian: телеви́зия f (televízija)
• Burmese: တယ်လီဗီးရှင်း (tailibi:hrang:), ရုပ်မြင်သံကြား (rupmrangsamkra:), တယ်လီဗစ်ရှင်း (tailibachrang:), တီဗီ (tibi), တီဗွီ (tibwi)
• Buryat: телевиз (tjeljeviz)
• Catalan: televisió f
• Central Melanau: telibisien
• Cherokee: ᎠᏓᏴᎳᏛᏍᎩ (adayvladvsgi)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 電視／电视 (din⁶ si⁶)

  Dungan: дяншы (di͡anšɨ), телевидение (ti͡əli͡əvidi͡ənii͡ə)

  Hakka: 電視／电视 (thien-sṳ)

  Mandarin: 電視／电视 (zh) (diànshì)

  Min Dong: 電視／电视 (diêng-sê)

  Min Nan: 電視／电视 (zh-min-nan) (tiān-sī)

  Wu: 電視／电视 (di zr)

• Chuvash: телекурӑм (telek̬urăm)
• Cornish: pellwolok f, televisyon m
• Crimean Tatar: telekörüv
• Czech: televize f
• Danish: tv n, fjernsyn n, television c
• Dutch: televisie f, kijkbuis (colloquial), beeldomroep m (dated)
• Esperanto: televido, (attributive) televida
• Estonian: televisioon
• Faroese: sjónvarp n
• Finnish: televisio
• French: télévision f, télé f
• Fula:

  Latin: telewisiyon

  Adlam: 𞤼𞤫𞤤𞤫𞤱𞤭𞤧𞤭𞤴𞤮𞤲‎

• Galician: televisión f, tele f
• Georgian: ტელევიზია (ṭelevizia)
• German: Fernsehen n, Television f
• Gilbertese: te tamnei
• Greek: τηλεόραση f (tileórasi)
• Guaraní: terevi, ta'ãngambyry
• Guiqiong: diɐnsi
• Gujarati: દૂરદર્શન (dūrdarśan)
• Haitian Creole: televizyon
• Hebrew: טלוויזיה / טֶלֶוִיזְיָה‎ f (televízya)
• Hindi: टेलिविजन (ṭelivijan), टेलीविज़न (ṭelīvizan), दूरदर्शन (dūrdarśan), टीवी (ṭīvī)
• Hungarian: televízió, tévé
• Icelandic: sjónvarp n, imbakassi m
• Ido: televiziono
• Indonesian: televisi
• Interlingua: television
• Irish: teilifís f
• Italian: televisione f, tivù f
• Japanese: テレビジョン (terebijon), テレビ (terebi), 電視 (でんし, denshi) (obsolete)
• Kalmyk: телеүзгдл (teleüzgdl)
• Kannada: ದೂರದರ್ಶನ (dūradarśana)
• Kazakh: теледидар (teledidar), телевидение (televidenie)
• Khmer: តេឡេ (teelee), ទូរទស្សន៍ (tuurĕəʼtŭəh)
• Korean: 텔레비전 (tellebijeon), 티브이 (tibeu'i), 티비 (tibi), 티뷔 (tibwi), 테레비 (terebi), 텔레비 (tellebi), 전시(電視) (jeonsi) (obsolete)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: televîzyon (ku)

• Kyrgyz: сыналгы (sınalgı), телевидение (televideniye)
• Lao: ໂທລະທັດ (thō la that), ທີວີ (thī wī), ໂທລະພາບ (thō la phāp)
• Latin: tēlevīsiō f
• Latvian: televīzija f, tālrāde f
• Lithuanian: televizija f
• Low German:

  German Low German: Feernseher

• Luxembourgish: Televisioun
• Lü: ᦶᦎᧃᧈᦉᦹᧈ (ṫaen¹ṡue¹)
• Macedonian: телевизија f (televizija)
• Malagasy: fahitalavitra
• Malay: televisyen (Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore), televisi (Riau and Sumatra)
• Malayalam: ടെലിവിഷൻ (ṭeliviṣaṉ)
• Maltese: televixin, televiżjoni f
• Manx: chellveeish f
• Maori: pouaka whakaata
• Marathi: दूरचित्रवाणी (dūrcitravāṇī)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: телевиз (televiz), зурагт (zuragt)

• Nahuatl: huehcaīxipcaxitl
• Navajo: níłchʼi naalkidí
• Nepali: टेलिभिजन (ṭelebhidzan), टीभि (ṭibhi), दूरदर्शन (durdarsan)
• Norman: télévîsion f
• Northern Sami: televišuvdna
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: fjernsyn (no) n, TV m, televisjon m

  Nynorsk: fjernsyn n, TV m, televisjon

• Occitan: television f
• Oriya: ଦୂରଦର୍ଶନ (durôdôrśônô)
• Papiamentu: televishon
• Pashto: تلويزيون‎ m (talwizyún)
• Pennsylvania German: guckbax
• Persian: تلویزیون‎ (televiziyon)
• Polish: telewizja f
• Portuguese: televisão f
• Quechua: tiliwisiyun, ñawikaruy
• Romanian: televiziune f
• Russian: телеви́дение n (televídenije), ТВ n (TV)
• Rusyn: телеві́зія f (televízija)
• S'gaw Karen: ကွဲၤဟူဖျါ (kweh̄ hoo hplah)
• Samoan: televise
• Santali: ᱧᱮᱱᱮᱞᱚᱢ (ñenelôm)
• Scots: televeesion
• Scottish Gaelic: telebhisean m, cian-dhealbh f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: телеви́зија f

  Roman: televízija (sh) f

• Shona: tiivhii
• Sicilian: tilivisiuni f, tivvù f
• Sinhalese: රූපවාහිනිය (rūpawāhiniya), ටීවී (ṭīwī), ටෙලි (ṭeli)
• Slovak: televízia f
• Slovene: televizija f
• Sotho: televishene
• Spanish: televisión f, tele f
• Sranan Tongo: teifei, teilefisi, telefisi
• Swahili: televisheni, runinga
• Swedish: television c
• Sylheti: ꠐꠤꠜꠤ (ṭibí)
• Tagalog: telebisyon
• Tajik: телевизион (televizion)
• Tamil: தொலைக்காட்சி (tolaikkāṭci), (Singapore) தொலைநோக்கி (tolainōkki)
• Tatar: телевидение (telewideniye)
• Telugu: టెలివిజన్ (ṭelivijan), దూరదర్శిని (dūradarśini)
• Thai: โทรทัศน์ (too-rá-tát), ทีวี (tii-wii), สื่อโทรทัศน์
• Tibetan: བརྙན་འཕྲིན (brnyan 'phrin)
• Tigrinya: ተለቪዥን (tälävižn)
• Tsonga: mavonakule
• Turkish: televizyon
• Turkmen: telewideniýe
• Ukrainian: телеба́чення n (telebáčennja), телеві́зія f (televízija)
• Urdu: ٹیلی ویژن‎ (ṭelīvižan), ٹیلیویژن‎ (ṭelevižan), بعید نما‎ (ba'īd numā), دور نمائی‎ f (dūr numai)
• Uyghur: تېلېۋىزىيە‎ (tëlëwiziye)
• Uzbek: televideniye
• Vietnamese: truyền hình (傳形), TV, ti-vi, vô tuyến truyền hình (無線傳形)
• Volapük: televid
• Welsh: teledu m
• West Frisian: televyzje
• Yakut: телевидение (televideniye)
• Yiddish: טעלעוויזיע‎ f (televizye)
• Yoruba: àfigbéwòran
• Zhuang: densi
• Zulu: thelevishini

device for receiving television signals

• Afrikaans: televisie
• Albanian: televizor m
• Arabic: تِلْفَاز‎ m (tilfāz), تِلِفِزْيُون‎ m (tilifizyūn), جِهَاز تِلِفِزْيُون‎ m (jihāz tilifizyūn)
• Armenian: հեռուստացույց (heṙustacʿuycʿ)
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܦܪܵܣܚܸܙܘܵܐ‎ m (prasḳizwa)
• Asturian: televisor m, televisión f, televisor m
• Azerbaijani: televizor
• Bashkir: телевизор (televizor)
• Basque: telebista
• Belarusian: тэлеві́зар m (teljevízar)
• Bengali: টেলিভিশন সেট (ṭelibhiśon seṭ), টেলিভিশন (ṭelibhiśon)
• Bulgarian: телеви́зор m (televízor)
• Catalan: televisió f, televisor m
• Central Dusun: televisyen
• Cherokee: ᎠᏓᏴᎳᏛᏍᎩ (adayvladvsgi)
• Chichewa: wailesi ya kanema
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 電視機／电视机 (din⁶ si⁶ gei¹)

  Dungan: дяншыҗи (di͡anšɨži), телевизор (ti͡əli͡əvizor)

  Mandarin: 電視機／电视机 (zh) (diànshìjī)

• Cornish: pellwolok f, televisyon m
• Cree: ᒋᑲᐢᑌᐸᔨᒋᑲᐣ (cikastepayicikan)
• Czech: televizor m, televize f, televizní přijímač m
• Danish: fjernsyn n, tv n
• Dutch: televisie m
• Esperanto: televidilo
• Estonian: televiisor, teler
• Faroese: sjónvarpstól n
• Finnish: televisio
• French: téléviseur m, télévision f (fam.), télé f, poste de télévision m
• Galician: televisor m, televisión f, tele f
• Georgian: ტელევიზორი (ṭelevizori)
• German: Fernseher m, Fernsehapparat m, Glotze f (informal)
• Greek: τηλεόραση f (tileórasi)
• Greenlandic: fjernsyni
• Guaraní: terevi
• Hebrew: טלוויזיה \ טֶלֶוִיזְיָה‎ f (televízya)
• Hindi: दूरदर्शन (dūrdarśan), टेलिविजन सेट (ṭelivijan seṭ)
• Hungarian: tévékészülék, tévé, televízió, tv
• Icelandic: sjónvarp, sjónvarpstæki n
• Ido: televidilo, televiziono
• Indonesian: televisi
• Interlingua: televisor
• Irish: teilifíseán m
• Italian: televisore m, tivù f
• Japanese: テレビ (terebi), テレビセット (terebisetto), 受像機 (じゅぞうき, juzōki)
• Kalmyk: зургт (zurgt)
• Kamba: tivii, tivii
• Kazakh: телевизор (televizor), теледидар (teledidar)
• Khmer: ទូរទស្សន៍ (tuurĕəʼtŭəh)
• Kikuyu: tivii
• Korean: 텔레비전 (tellebijeon), 티비 (tibi), 티뷔 (tibwi), 텔레비 (tellebi)
• Kyrgyz: телевизор (televizor)
• Lao: ເຄື່ອງທີວີ (khư̄ang thī wī)
• Latin: tēlevīsōrium n, tēlevīstrum n, tēlevīsiō f
• Latvian: televizors m tālrādis m
• Lithuanian: televizorius m
• Luhya: etivii
• Luxembourgish: Televisiounsapparat
• Lü: ᦶᦎᧃᧈᦉᦹᧈ (ṫaen¹ṡue¹)
• Macedonian: телеви́зор m (televízor)
• Malay: televisyen, peti gambar
• Malayalam: ടെലിവിഷൻ (ṭeliviṣaṉ)
• Maltese: televiżjoni f
• Manx: çhellveeishan m
• Maori: taonga whakaata
• Meru: tivii
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: телевизор (televizor), зурагт (zuragt)

• Navajo: níłchʼi naalkidí
• Norman: télévîsion f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: fjernsyn (no) n, TV m, fjernsynsapparat n

  Nynorsk: fjernsyn n, TV m, fjernsynsapparat m

• Occitan: television f
• Ojibwe: mazinaatesijigan
• Persian: تلویزیون‎ (televizion), دورنمار‎
• Polish: telewizor m
• Portuguese: televisor m, televisão f, aparelho televisor m
• Romanian: televizor n
• Russian: телеви́зор m (televízor), те́лик m (télik) (colloquial), телевизио́нный приёмник m (televiziónnyj prijómnik)
• Scots: televeesion
• Scottish Gaelic: telebhisean m, cian-dhealbh f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: телѐвӣзор m

  Roman: telèvīzor (sh) m

• Sicilian: tilivisuri m, tivvù f
• Slovak: televizor m
• Slovene: televizor m, televizijski sprejemnik m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: telewizor m

• Sotho: telebishene
• Spanish: televisor m, televisión f, tele f
• Swahili: runinga, televisheni
• Swedish: television, TV c, TV-apparat c
• Tagalog: telebisyon
• Tajik: телевизор (televizor)
• Tamil: தொலைக்காட்சிப் பெட்டி (tolaikkāṭcip peṭṭi)
• Tatar: телевизор (telewizor)
• Thai: โทรทัศน์ (too-rá-tát), เครื่องรับโทรทัศน์
• Turkish: televizyon, televizyon alıcısı
• Turkmen: telewizor
• Ukrainian: телеві́зор m (televízor)
• Urdu: ٹیلی ویژن‎ (ṭelīvižan), ٹیلیویژن‎ (ṭelevižan), دور نمائی‎ f (dūr numai)
• Uyghur: تېلېۋىزور́‎ (tëlëwizoŕ)
• Uzbek: televizor
• Vietnamese: máy thu hình, TV, ti-vi
• Volapük: televidöm
• Welsh: teledu m, set deledu m
• Yiddish: טעלעוויזאָר‎ m (televizor)
• Yup'ik: tiiviiq

program broadcasting

• Albanian: televizion
• Arabic: تِلْفَاز‎ m (tilfāz), تِلِفِزْيُون‎ m (tilifizyūn)
• Armenian: հեռուստատեսություն (heṙustatesutʿyun)
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܦܪܵܣܚܸܙܘܵܐ‎ m (prasḳizwa)
• Basque: telebista
• Bulgarian: телеви́зия f (televízija)
• Catalan: televisió f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 電視／电视 (din⁶ si⁶)

  Mandarin: 電視／电视 (zh) (diànshì)

• Cornish: pellwolok f, televisyon m
• Czech: televize f
• Danish: tv n
• Dutch: televisie m
• Esperanto: televido
• Faroese: sjónvarp n
• Finnish: televisio
• French: télévision f
• Galician: televisión f, tele f
• Georgian: ტელევიზია (ṭelevizia)
• German: Fernsehen n
• Greek: τηλεόραση f (tileórasi)
• Guaraní: terevi
• Hebrew: טלוויזיה \ טֶלֶוִיזְיָה‎ f (televízya)
• Icelandic: sjónvarp n
• Interlingua: television
• Irish: teilifís f
• Italian: televisione f
• Japanese: テレビジョン (terebijon)
• Korean: 텔레비전 (tellebijeon)
• Latin: tēlevīsiō f
• Macedonian: телевизија f (televizija)
• Malay: televisyen
• Maltese: televiżiv
• Manx: çhellveeish f
• Navajo: níłchʼi naalkidí
• Norman: télévîsion f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: fjernsyn (no) n, TV m

  Nynorsk: fjernsyn n, TV m

• Persian: تلویزیون‎ (televizion)
• Polish: telewizja f
• Portuguese: televisão f
• Romanian: televiziune f
• Russian: телеви́дение n (televídenije)
• Scottish Gaelic: telebhisean m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: телеви́зија f

  Roman: televízija (sh) f

• Sicilian: tilivisiuni f
• Slovak: televízia f
• Spanish: televisión f, tele f
• Swahili: televisheni
• Swedish: television
• Tagalog: telebisyon
• Thai: โทรทัศน์ (too-rá-tát)
• Ukrainian: телеба́чення (telebáčennja)
• Urdu: دور نمائی‎ f (dūr numai), ٹیلی ویژن‎ (ṭelīvižan), ٹیلیویژن‎ (ṭelevižan)
• Vietnamese: truyền hình (傳形), TV, ti-vi, vô tuyến truyền hình (無線傳形), phát hình
• Welsh: teledu m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Ido: ^{(please verify)} televiziono
• Maori: ^{(please verify)} reo tātaki, ^{(please verify)} pouaka whakaata

Verb

television (third-person singular simple present televisions, present participle televisioning, simple past and past participle televisioned)

1. (neologism, informal) To watch television.

Anagrams

• olivenites

Finnish

Noun

television

1. genitive singular of televisio

Lombard

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /televiˈzjuːŋ/

• IPA^(key): [televiˈzjũːŋ] (Western)
• IPA^(key): [televiˈzju] (Eastern)

Noun

television

1. television

Occitan

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

television f (plural televisions)

1. television

Swedish

Etymology

From English television, from tele- +‎ vision.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /tɛlɛvɪˈɧuːn/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

television c

1. television

Declension

Declension of television
	Uncountable
	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	television	televisionen	—	—
Genitive	televisions	televisionens	—	—

Related terms

• teve
• tv