telephone operator

1. 1.

   someone who helps callers get the person they are calling

   Synonymstelephonistswitchboard operator

   Broaderoperator

Questions about telephone operator

What does telephone operator mean?

telephone operator means "someone who helps callers get the person they are calling".

What is another word for telephone operator?

Close synonyms include telephonist, switchboard operator. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is telephone operator a common word?

telephone operator is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.