Telecom

How to spell telecom

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce telecom

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does telecom mean?

1. nounThe telecommunications industry, or a company that provides telephone and data services; also used to describe equipment or services in that field.

Telecom in a sentence

• She left banking to take a marketing role at a major telecom provider.

• The merger created the largest telecom operator in the region.

Where does telecom come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word is a modern clipping of telecommunications, which itself joins the Greek prefix tele-, meaning 'far off' or 'at a distance', to the Latin-derived 'communications', from communicare, 'to share' or 'to make common'. The longer term arose in the early twentieth century to cover the sending of information over distances by wire, radio, and later electronic networks, and English shortened it to the brisk 'telecom' as the industry grew through the late twentieth century. The same tele- root sits inside 'telephone' (far-sound), 'television' (far-sight), and 'telegraph' (far-writing), so it reliably signals distance. As a clipped business term it is frequently used as a noun for the sector and as a modifier for companies and equipment within it. Because the spelling is short and phonetic, the only real trap is remembering it is a single closed word with no final letters dropped or added.

How the word is built

• tele- (Greek: far, distant)
• com (clipping of communications)