How to say "phone" in Japanese

• フォーン
  nounA katakana borrowing of English 'phone' meaning the telephone device, but a less common way to say it; 電話 is the word you will normally want for the device.
• 単音たんおん
  nounHere 'phone' is the linguistics sense: an individual speech sound, as discussed in phonetics. This word never means the telephone; for the device it is not the word you want.
• 電話でんわJLPT N5approx.Common
  nounThe common word for the telephone device; when you want to say 'phone' in the device sense, this is the word to reach for, far more frequent than フォーン.
  電話でんわは繰り返くりかえし鳴なっていた。↗

  The telephone rang repeatedly.

For the telephone device, use 電話; 「フォーン」 is a less common katakana borrowing for the same device, while 単音 is the phonetics term for a phone as an individual speech sound.

Usage comparisons are AI-assisted and cross-checked by multiple models; for study reference only

• フォーンphone
• 単音たんおんsingle sound
• 電話でんわtelephone (device)