Radio

How to spell radio

5 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce radio

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does radio mean?

1. nounA device that receives broadcast sound signals, or the broadcasting medium itself.
2. verbTo send a message to someone using radio equipment.

Radio in a sentence

• noun

  She turned on the kitchen radio to catch the morning news.

• verb

  The pilot had to radio the control tower for landing clearance.

• noun

  The local radio station plays traffic updates every hour.

• verb

  Rescue teams will radio headquarters once they reach the summit.

Where does radio come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin radius, which literally meant a 'ray', a 'spoke of a wheel', or a 'beam'. In the early twentieth century scientists used the Latin-derived element radio- to describe energy that spread out in rays, as in 'radiotelegraphy' and 'radiotelephony', the wireless transmission of signals through space. The shortened noun 'radio' emerged around 1907 from these longer technical terms, first naming the apparatus and then the whole medium of broadcasting. The same radius root sits inside everyday words such as 'radius', 'radiate', and 'radiant', all carrying the idea of something spreading outward from a centre. Because the spelling keeps the clean Latin vowels with no doubled letters or silent traps, it has stayed remarkably stable and identical across English dialects.

How the word is built

• radi- (from Latin radius: ray, spoke, beam)
• -o (combining/noun ending, here from 'radiotelegraphy')