# call
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English callen, from Old English ċeallian (“to call, shout”) and Old Norse kalla (“to call; shout; refer to as; name”); both from Proto-Germanic *kalzōną (“to call, shout”), from Proto-Indo-European *golH-so- (“voice, cry”), from *gel(H)- (“to vocalize, call, shout”).
* Scots call, caw, ca (“to call, cry, shout”)
* Dutch kallen (“to chat, talk”),
* German kallen (“to call”)
* Swedish kalla (“to call, refer to, beckon”)
* Norwegian kalle (“to call, name”)
* Danish kalde (“to call, name”)
* Icelandic kalla (“to call, shout, name”)
* Welsh galw (“to call, demand”)
* Polish głos (“voice”)
* Lithuanian gal̃sas (“echo”)
* Russian голос (golos, “voice”)
* Albanian gjuhë (“language, tongue”).

### Pronunciation

* (MLE) IPA: /qʰʊu̯/
* (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kôl, IPA: /kɔːl/, [kʰoɫ]
** Audio (Received Pronunciation):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /kɔl/, [kʰɔɫ]
** (cot–caught merger) IPA: /kɑl/, [kʰɑɫ]
** Audio (General American):(file)
* (Canada) IPA: [kʰɔːɫ]
* (General Australian) IPA: /koːl/
** Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɔːl
* Homophone: coll (cot–caught merger)

### Verb

call (third-person singular simple present calls, present participle calling, simple past and past participle called or (archaic) call'd)
* (heading) To reach out with one's voice.
** (intransitive) To request, summon, or beckon.
    That person is hurt; call for help!
*** 1684, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress. From This World to That which is to Come: The Second Part. […], London: […] Nathaniel Ponder […], →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress as Originally Published by John Bunyan: Being a Fac-simile Reproduction of the First Edition, London: Elliot Stock […], 1875, →OCLC, page 128:So they called for Rooms; and he ſhewed them one for Christiana and her Children and Mercy, and another for Mr. Great-heart and the old Gentleman.
** (intransitive) To cry or shout.
    Synonyms: holler, yell; see also Thesaurus:shout
*** 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC,:If you heare a child crie in the night you must call to the nurſe and bid her ſtil it.
*** 1902, Rudyard Kipling, “How the Alphabet was Made”, in Just So Stories: For Little Children, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, stanza 5, page 169:For far—oh, very far behind, / So far she cannot call to him, / Comes Tegumai alone to find / The daughter that was all to him!
** (transitive) To utter in a loud or distinct voice.
    to call the roll of a military company
*** 1714, J[ohn] Gay, “Saturday; or, The Flights”, in The Shepherd’s Week. In Six Pastorals, London: […] R. Burleigh […], →OCLC, page 56, lines 47–50:Not ballad-ſinger plac'd above the croud, / Sings with a note ſo ſhrilling ſweet and loud, / Nor pariſh clerk who calls the pſalm ſo clear, / Like Bowzybeus ſooths th' attentive ear.
** (ambitransitive) To contact by telephone.
    Synonyms: drop a line, ring, get on the horn, give someone a ring, give someone a bell; see also Thesaurus:telephone
    Why don’t you call me in the morning?
    Why don’t you call tomorrow?
** (transitive) To rouse from sleep; to awaken.
    Synonyms: wake up; see also Thesaurus:awaken
*** 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 376, column 2:Take not away the Taper, leaue it burning: / And if thou canſt awake by foure o’th’clock, / I prythee call me: Sleepe hath ceiz’d me wholly.
** (transitive, jazz) To request that one's band play (a particular tune).
*** 1997, Saxophone Journal:They called I Got Rhythm, and turned to me again for a solo, and I said what?
*** 2002, Ken Vail, Duke's Diary:Jeff Castleman and Rufus Jones were in position when they went out, and he immediately called Satin Doll.
*** 2015, Clyde E. B. Bernhardt, I Remember: Eighty Years of Black Entertainment, Big Bands, and the Blues, University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, page 98:I thought he forgot all about it, but late in the set he called St. Louis Blues.
** (Yorkshire, transitive) To scold.
*** 1865, William Stott Banks, Wakefield Words, page 11:CALL 1 scold
* (heading, intransitive) To visit.
** To pay a (social) visit (often used with "on", "round", or "at"; used by salespeople with "again" to invite customers to come again).
    We could always call on a friend.
    The engineer called round whilst you were away.
*** a. 1700 (date written), William Temple, “Of Health and Long-life”, in Miscellanea. The Third Part. […], London: […] Jonathan Swift, […] Benjamin Tooke, […], published 1701, →OCLC, page 127:[...] He ordered Her to call at His Houſe once a Week, which She did for ſome Time; after which He heard no more of Her.
*** 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 58:The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track.
** To stop at a station or port.
    This train calls at Reading, Slough and London Paddington.
    Our cruise ship called at Bristol Harbour.
** To come to pass; to afflict.
*** 1968 December 8, Henry Cosby, Sylvia Moy, Stevie Wonder (lyrics and music), “I’d Be a Fool Right Now”, in For Once in My Life, performed by Stevie Wonder:They say your love will surely fade, girl, / When things go wrong and trouble calls.
* (heading) To name, identify, or describe.
** (ditransitive) To name or refer to.
    Synonyms: designate, dub, name; see also Thesaurus:denominate
    Why don’t we dispense with the formalities? Please call me Al.
*** 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:I don't know how you and the 'head,' as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a 'livery' again there'll be trouble. It's bad enough to go around togged out like a life saver on a drill day, but I can stand that 'cause I'm paid for it. What I won't stand is to have them togs called a livery.
*** 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, “The Shadow of the Bat”, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 6:The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours for his work of rapine; like a bat he struck and vanished, pouncingly, noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.
*** 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:But the scandals kept coming, and so we entered stage three–what therapists call "bargaining". A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul. Instead it offers fixes and patches.
** (in passive) Of a person, to have as one's name; of a thing, to have as its name.
    I’m called John.
    A very tall building is called a skyscraper.
*** 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.
** To state, or estimate, approximately or loosely; to characterize without strict regard to fact.
    They call the distance ten miles.
    That’s enough work. Let's call it a day and go home.
*** 1842, Henry Brougham, Political Philosophy:The whole army is called 700,000 men
** (transitive) To claim the existence of some malfeasance; to denounce as.
    I call bullshit.
    She called foul on their scheme.
*** 2008, PC Magazine‎:Having been around the block a few times, I immediately called "shenanigans” on it, but even so, I was taken aback.
** (obsolete) To disclose the class or character of; to identify.
*** c. 1608–1610, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “Philaster: Or, Love Lies a Bleeding”, in Fifty Comedies and Tragedies. […], [part 1], London: […] J[ohn] Macock [and H. Hills], for John Martyn, Henry Herringman, and Richard Marriot, published 1679, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 22, column 2:This ſpeech calls him Spaniard, being nothing but / A large inventory of his own commendations.
* (heading) To declare, or declare in favor of, a predicted or actual result.
** (transitive) To declare in advance.
    The captains call the coin toss.
** (transitive) To predict.
    Synonyms: augur, foretell; see also Thesaurus:predict
    He called twelve of the last three recessions.
** (transitive) To formally recognise a death: especially to announce and record the time, place and fact of a person’s death.
*** 1997, Joanni Nelson Horchler, Robin Rice Morris, The SIDS Survival Guide: Information and Comfort for Grieving Family and Friends and Professionals who Seek to Help Them, page 33:“Let’s call it. Time of death, 08:45.” The respiratory therapist stopped bagging. The doctor stopped CPR. There was no heartbeat on the monitor. Michael was dead.
*** 2012, Marcy O. Diehl, Medical Transcription: Techniques and Procedures (Seventh Edition), page 127:EXAMPLES: Time of death was called at 16:34(Incorrect). Time of death was called at 1634 p.m.(Incorrect). Time of death was called at 1634 hours(Correct). NOTE: Military (or 24-hour) time is not used with a.m, p.m, or o’clock. It is frequently used to state birth and death times, as well as time of day in autopsy protocols. It is customary to write the word hours after the figures.
*** 2015, Tracey Cleantis, The Next Happy: Let Go of the Life You Planned and Find a New Way Forward‎:If you are staring your dream in the face and seeing that it is time to quit, I urge you to call the time of death right now. You can sit here with this book in your hand and do it, or climb to a mountaintop and shout it, or write it on a message in a bottle and throw it out to sea. However you do it, do it. I can guarantee that there is life on the other side of the impossible. And naming the time of death is an important process in moving on, letting go, and getting to the other side.
** To declare (an effort or project) to be a failure.
    After the third massive failure, John called the whole initiative.
** (sports) To make a decision as a referee or umpire.
    The goal was called offside.
* (heading, sports) Direct or indirect use of the voice.
** (cricket) (of a batsman): To shout directions to the other batsman on whether or not they should take a run.
** (baseball, cricket) (of a fielder): To shout to other fielders that he intends to take a catch (thus avoiding collisions).
** (cue sports) To tell in advance which shot one is attempting.
    Synonyms: name, nominate; see also Thesaurus:specify
    Every shot must be called.
** (intransitive, poker) To equal the same amount that other players are currently betting.
    I bet $800 and Jane raised to $1600. My options: call (match her $1600 bet), reraise, or fold.
** (intransitive, poker, proscribed) To match the current bet amount, in preparation for a raise in the same turn. (Usually, players are forbidden to announce one's play this way.)
    I’ll call your 300, and raise to 600!
** (transitive) To state, or invoke a rule, in many games such as bridge, craps, jacks, and so on.
    My partner called two spades.
* (transitive, sometimes with for) To require, demand.
    He felt called to help the old man.
* (transitive, with into) To cause to be verbally subjected to.
** 1910, Emerson Hough, “The Gateway, and Some Who Passed”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 29:Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations.
    The basis for his conclusion was called into doubt
* (transitive, colloquial) To lay claim to an object or role which is up for grabs.
    I call the comfy chair!
** 1998, “The Trouble with Trillions”, in The Simpsons‎, season 9:Mr. Burns: Any of these islands would make a fine new country. / Homer: I call president! / Mr. Burns: Vice president! / Smithers: [groans]
* (transitive, finance) To announce the early extinction of a debt by prepayment, usually at a premium.
* (transitive, banking) To demand repayment of a loan.
* (transitive, computing) To jump to (another part of a program); to perform some operation, returning to the original point on completion.
    A recursive function is one that calls itself.

#### Usage notes

* In older forms of English, when the pronoun thou was in active use, and verbs used -est for distinct second-person singular indicative forms, the verb call had the form callest, and had calledst for its past tense.
* Similarly, when the ending -eth was in active use for third-person singular present indicative forms, the form calleth was used.
* The sense of naming an object, as with the phrase it’s called a(n), is intended to humiliate a listener when the object is known to be familiar:
    Hey, here’s something to keep you dry in the rain. It’s called an umbrella.

#### Derived terms

* becall
* butter my butt and call it a biscuit
* butter my butt and call me a biscuit
* callability
* callable
* call a cab
* call after
* call again
* call a go
* call a halt
* call ahead
* call a lid
* call an ambulance
* call an audible
* call and collect
* call around
* call a shovel a shovel
* call a spade a bloody shovel
* call a spade a fucking shovel
* call a spade a shovel
* call a spade a spade
* call a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel
* call away
* call back
* call balls and strikes
* call bullshit
* call by
* call-by-future
* call-by-name
* call-by-need
* call-by-reference
* call down
* callee
* call 'em as one sees 'em
* caller
* call for
* call forth
* call in
* calling
* calling bell
* calling-card
* calling card
* calling crab
* calling name
* calling station
* call in sick
* call in the wilderness
* call into doubt
* call into question
* call it
* call it a day
* call it an early night
* call it a night
* call it as one sees it
* call it even
* call it half a day
* call it quits
* call it square
* call it stumps
* call names
* call of duty
* call off
* call on
* call on the carpet
* call onto the carpet
* call out
* call out of one's name
* call out sick
* call over
* call roll
* call round
* call someone every name in the book
* call someone everything but a child of God
* call someone's bluff
* call someone's number
* call the ball
* call the fire department
* call them as one sees them
* call the police
* call the question
* call the shots
* call the tune
* call time
* call to
* call to account
* call together
* call to mind
* call to order
* call to task
* call to the Bar
* call to the bar
* call up
* call upon
* cat calling the kettle black
* check-call
* cold-calling
* cold calling
* come calling
* cop-call
* desperate times call for desperate measures
* don't call us, we'll call you
* drop call
* duty calls
* effectual calling
* I'll call the police
* is that what the kids are calling it these days
* I've never heard it called that before
* miscall
* name-calling
* now that's what I call
* overcall
* photo call
* point and call
* pot calling the kettle black
* recall
* re-call
* slap my ass and call me Judy
* slap my ass and call me Sally
* smooth call
* that's what I call
* too close to call
* voice calling in the wilderness
* whatchacallit
* what-d'ye-call-'em
* what-d'ye-call-it
* who's calling
* will call
* withcall
* you call this

#### Descendants

* → Kashubian: kolowac (United States)

#### Translations

Afrikaans: roep
Albanian: quaj (sq)
Arabic: دَعَا (ar) (daʕā), نَادَى (ar) (nādā)
Hijazi Arabic: نادى (nāda)
Aragonese: clamar (an)
Armenian: կանչել (hy) (kančʻel)
Aromanian: cljem
Assamese: মতা (mota), মাতা (mata)
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܩܵܪܹܐ (qare)
Asturian: llamar
Azerbaijani: çağırmaq (az), axtarmaq (az), aramaq
Belarusian: клі́каць impf (klíkacʹ), клі́кнуць pf (klíknucʹ)
Bengali: ডাকা (bn) (ḍaka)
Brunei Malay: lagau, panggil
Bulgarian: ви́кам (bg) impf (víkam), ви́кна pf (víkna), пови́квам (bg) impf (povíkvam), пови́кам pf (povíkam)
Burmese: အော် (my) (au), ဆင့် (my) (hcang.)
Catalan: cridar (ca)
Cebuano: tawag
Cherokee: ᎠᏯᏂᎭ (ayaniha)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 叫 (zh) (jiào)
Corsican: chjamà (co)
Czech: volat (cs) impf, zavolat (cs) pf
Dalmatian: clamuor
Danish: kalde
Dutch: roepen (nl)
Egyptian: (ꜥš)
Esperanto: voki
Estonian: kutsuma
Finnish: kutsua (fi), hakea (fi)
French: appeler (fr)
Friulian: clamâ
Galician: chamar (gl)
Georgian: დაძახება (daʒaxeba), ხმობა (xmoba)
German: rufen (de), anrufen (de), herbeirufen (de)
Gothic: 𐌻𐌰𐌸𐍉𐌽 (laþōn)
Greek: καλώ (el) (kaló)
Ancient: καλέω (kaléō)
Haitian Creole: rele
Hebrew: קָרָא (he) (kará)
Hindi: पुकारना (hi) (pukārnā), बुलाना (hi) (bulānā)
Hungarian: hív (hu)
Icelandic: kalla (is)
Ido: vokar (io)
Irish: glaoigh, scairt
Old Irish: do·gair, con·gair
Istro-Romanian: cľamå
Italian: chiamare (it)
Japanese: 呼ぶ (ja) (よぶ, yobu)
Kazakh: шақыру (şaqyru)
Khmer: ហៅ (km) (haw)
Korean: 부르다 (ko) (bureuda)
Kyrgyz: чакыруу (ky) (cakıruu)
Lao: ກູ່ (kū), ເອີ້ນ (ʼœ̄n)
Latgalian: saukt, klīgt
Latin: vocō (la)
Latvian: saukt
Ligurian: ciamâ
Lithuanian: šaukti, pašaukti
Lombard: ciamà (lmo)
Low German:
German Low German: ropen (nds)
Macedonian: ви́ка impf (víka), пови́кува impf (povíkuva), по́вика pf (póvika)
Malay: panggil (ms)
Maori: karanga
Neapolitan: chiammà
North Frisian: (Sylt dialect) röp
Norwegian: kalle (no)
Occitan: cridar (oc)
Old Church Slavonic:
Cyrillic: зъвати impf (zŭvati), клицати impf (klicati)
Ossetian: хонын (xonyn)
Ottoman Turkish: چاغرمق (çağırmak)
Papiamentu: yama
Pashto: بلل (ps) (baləl)
Persian: صدا زدن (fa) (sedâ zadan)
Polish: wzywać (pl) impf, wezwać (pl) pf, wołać (pl) impf, zawołać (pl) pf
Portuguese: chamar (pt)
Quechua: waqyay
Romanian: chema (ro)
Romansch: clamar, clamer, clomar
Russian: звать (ru) impf (zvatʹ), позва́ть (ru) pf (pozvátʹ), вызыва́ть (ru) impf (vyzyvátʹ), вы́звать (ru) pf (výzvatʹ), кли́кать (ru) impf (klíkatʹ)
Sanskrit: गृणाति (sa) (gṛṇāti)
Sardinian: ciamare
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: зва̏ти impf
Roman: zvȁti (sh) impf
Sicilian: chiamari (scn)
Slovak: volať impf, zavolať pf
Slovene: klícati (sl) impf, poklícati pf
Sorbian:
Lower Sorbian: wołaś impf
Spanish: llamar (es), convocar (es)
Sranan Tongo: kari
Swahili: kuita (sw)
Swedish: kalla (sv), ropa (sv)
Tajik: ҷеғ задан (jeġ zadan), фарёд кардан (faryod kardan)
Tamil: அழை (ta) (aḻai), கூப்பிடு (ta) (kūppiṭu)
Tausug: tawag
Telugu: పిలుచు (te) (pilucu)
Thai: เรียก (th) (rîiak)
Turkish: aramak (tr), çağırmak (tr)
Turkmen: oýarmak, çagarmak
Ukrainian: кли́кати impf (klýkaty), покли́кати pf (poklýkaty); зва́ти impf (zváty), позва́ти pf (pozváty)
Urdu: پکارنا (pukārnā), بلانا (bulānā)
Uyghur: چاقىرماق (ug) (chaqirmaq)
Uzbek: chaqirmoq (uz)
Vietnamese: gọi (vi), kêu (vi)
Walloon: houkî (wa)
West Flemish: roepen
Yakut: угуй (uguy)
Yiddish: רופֿן (rufn)
Zulu: -biza :
    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Noun

call (countable and uncountable, plural calls)
* A cry or shout.
    He heard a call from the other side of the room.
* The characteristic cry of a bird or other animal.
    That sound is the distinctive call of the cuckoo bird.
* A beckoning or summoning.
    I had to yield to the call of the wild.
** 1711 October 8 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “THURSDAY, September 27, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 181; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 440:Dependance is a perpetual call upon humanity, and a greater incitement to tenderness and pity, than any other motive whatsoever.The spelling has been modernized.
** 1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XXIII, in Lady Trevelyan (Hannah More Macaulay), editor, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume V, London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, →OCLC, page 117:But they had hoped that, when peace had been restored, when no call of duty required him [William III of England] to cross the sea, he would generally, during the summer and autumn, reside in his fair palaces and parks on the banks of the Thames, [...]
** 2007, Latina, volume 11, page 101:We actually have a call tomorrow, which is a Sunday, right after my bridal shower. I have to make enchiladas for 10 people!
* A telephone conversation; a phone call.
    I received several phone calls today.
    I received several calls today.
* An instance of calling someone on the telephone.
    I made a call to Jim, but he didn’t answer.
* A short visit, usually for social purposes.
    I paid a call to a dear friend of mine.
** 1785, William Cowper, “Book I. The Sofa.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, pages 13–14:He [...] ſeldom waits, / Dependent on the baker's punctual call, / To hear his creaking panniers at the door, / Angry and ſad and his laſt cruſt conſumed.
** 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 149:Podson stayed till after five, though he handsomely apologized for outstaying a call. "The fact is, I never think of the time, when I get talking to a really intelligent woman...'
* (nautical) A visit by a ship or boat to a port.
    The ship made a call at Southampton.
* A decision or judgement.
    That was a good call.
* The right to speak at a given time during a debate or other public event; the floor.
    The Prime Minister has the call.
    I give the call to the Manager of Opposition Business.
* (finance) Short for call option.
* (cricket) The act of calling to the other batsman.
* (cricket) The state of being the batsman whose role it is to call (depends on where the ball goes.)
* (uncountable) A work shift which requires one to be available when requested, i.e. on call.
** 1978, Alan E. Nourse, The Practice‎, Harper & Row, →ISBN:page 48: “Mondays would be great, especially after a weekend of call.” page 56: “ […] I’ve got call tonight, and all weekend, but I’ll be off tomorrow to help you some.”
** 2007, William D. Bailey, You Will Never Run out of Jesus, CrossHouse Publishing,, →ISBN, page 29:I took general-surgery call at Bossier Medical Center and asked special permission to take general-medical call, which was gladly given away by the older staff members: […] . You would be surprised at how many surgical cases came out of medical call.
** 2008, Jamal M. Bullocks et al., Plastic Surgery Emergencies: Principles and Techniques, Thieme, →ISBN, page ix:We attempted to include all topics that we ourselves have faced while taking plastic surgery call at the affiliated hospitals in the Texas Medical Center, one of the largest medical centers in the world, which sees over 100,000 patients per day.
** 2009, Steven Louis Shelley, A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting, page 171:The columns in the second rectangle show fewer hours, but part of that is due to the fact that there's a division between a work call and a show call.
* (computing) The act of jumping to a subprogram, saving the means to return to the original point.
* A statement of a particular state, or rule, made in many games such as bridge, craps, jacks, and so on.
    There was a 20 dollar bet on the table, and my call was 9.
* (poker) The act of matching a bet made by a player who has previously bet in the same round of betting.
* A note blown on the horn to encourage the dogs in a hunt.
* (nautical) A whistle or pipe, used by the boatswain and his mate to summon the sailors to duty.
* A pipe or other instrument to call birds or animals by imitating their note or cry. A game call.
* An invitation to take charge of or serve a church as its pastor.
* (archaic) Vocation; employment; calling.
* (US, law) A reference to, or statement of, an object, course, distance, or other matter of description in a survey or grant requiring or calling for a corresponding object, etc., on the land.
* (informal, slang, prostitution) A meeting with a client for paid sex; hookup; job.
** 2015 March 3, Lyda Longa, “Internet hookups mean fewer prostitutes on Daytona’s streets, police say”, in The Daytona Beach News-Journal‎, Daytona Beach, Fla.:"They have a little network of women that watch out for each other," Morford said. That means that if one prostitute doesn't come back after going out on a call – whether it's an Internet prostitute or a streetwalker – and the other women can't get hold of her, they get scared, close up shop and won't work, Morford said.
* (law) A lawyer who was called to the bar (became licensed as a lawyer) in a specified year.
** 2020 October 28, Master K.E. Jolley, “Korlyakov v. Riesz, 2020 ONSC 6622”, in CanLII‎, retrieved 19 June 2021:The work was done by two lawyers, one a 1983 call and the other a 2010 call.
* (in negative constructions) Need; necessity.
    There's no call for that kind of bad language!
** 1865, William Stott Banks, Wakefield Words, page 11:CALL 2 need for. "There worn't noa call for nowt o't'soart."

#### Hyponyms

* altar call
* bird call
* booty call
* broker's call
* bugle call
* calendar call
* cat call
* cold call
* collect call
* conference call
* courtesy call
* crank call
* curtain call
* distress call
* duck call
* forecall
* function call
* house call
* mail call
* margin call
* missed call
* money call
* naked call
* nuisance call
* phantom abandoned call
* phone call
* prank call
* put-call
* roll call
* self-call
* service call
* sick call
* tail call
* telephone call
* toll call
* turkey call
* uncovered call
* wake-up call

#### Derived terms

* aftercall
* altar call
* answer the call
* answer the call of nature
* ass call
* at call
* auction call
* beck and call
* birdcall
* bird call
* boatswain's call
* booty call
* broker's call
* bugle call
* butt call
* calendar call
* call and response
* call bird
* callboard
* call board, call-board
* call bond
* callbook
* call box, callbox
* callboy
* call button
* call by future
* call by name
* call by need
* call by reference
* call-by-value
* call center
* call centre
* call date
* call delay
* call drink
* call fire
* call for help
* call forwarding
* call girl
* callgirl
* call graph
* call history
* call house
* call leaf
* call letters
* call liquor
* call loan
* call mark
* call money
* call money rate
* call note
* call number
* call of duty
* call of nature
* call of the wild
* call option
* call originator
* callout, call-out
* call premium
* call price
* call protection
* call rate
* call risk
* call rule
* call screening
* callset
* call sheet
* call-shy
* callsign
* call sign
* call site
* call slip
* call stack
* calltip
* call to action
* call to arms
* call to prayer
* call to the bar
* call tree
* callup, call-up
* call value
* call waiting
* call-with-current-continuation
* captain's call
* casting call
* catcall
* cat call
* cattle call
* check-call
* chow call
* clarion call
* close call
* cold call
* collect call
* conference call
* contact call
* countercall
* courtesy call
* covered call
* crank call
* crying call
* curtain call
* distress call
* downcall
* drastic times call for drastic measures
* duck call
* firecall
* first call
* first port of call
* flat call
* forecall
* function call
* ghost call
* hang-up call
* hero call
* hog call
* house call
* house of call
* insta-call
* international call prefix
* Jody call
* judgement call
* last call
* mail call
* makeup call
* margin call
* mating call
* midcall
* missed call
* money call
* moosecall
* naked call
* no-call-no-show
* noncall
* nuisance call
* on call, on-call
* open call
* overcall
* phantom call
* phee-call
* phone call
* photocall
* pocket call
* port of call
* prank call
* procedure call
* put-call
* remote procedure call
* reverse 911 call
* robocall
* roll call
* safety call
* seet call
* self-call
* servants' call
* service call
* sick call
* siren call
* subroutine call
* tail call
* telecall
* telephone call
* the call is coming from inside the house
* toll call
* tough call
* trumpet call
* trunk call
* turkey call
* uncovered call
* upcall
* video call
* voice call
* wakeup call
* wake-up call
* watering call
* within call
* wolf call

#### Descendants

* → Armenian: քոլ (kʻol)
* → Georgian: ქოლი (koli)

#### Translations
## Catalan
### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈkaʎ]

### Etymology 1

Inherited from Latin callis (“alley, narrow street, passageway”). Compare Spanish calle (“street”).

#### Noun

call m (plural calls)
* passageway

##### Related terms

* encallar

### Etymology 2

Inherited from Latin callum.

#### Noun

call m (uncountable)
* corn

##### Derived terms

* call de la mà
* callera

### Etymology 3

Borrowed from Hebrew קָהָל (qahál, “assembly, synagogue”).

#### Noun

call m (plural calls)
* Jewish quarter
    Synonym: jueria

### Further reading

* “call” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
* “call”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
* “call” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

## Chinese
### Etymology

From English call.

### Pronunciation

* Cantonese (Jyutping): ko$^1$
* Cantonese
** (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
*** Jyutping: ko$^1$
*** Yale: kō
*** Cantonese Pinyin: ko$^1$
*** Guangdong Romanization: ko$^1$
*** Sinological IPA : /kʰɔː⁵⁵/

### Noun

call
* (chiefly Hong Kong Cantonese) radio call; phone call (Classifier: 個／个 c)
* (Hong Kong Cantonese) summoning of people
* (ACG) Wotagei

### Verb

call
* (chiefly Hong Kong Cantonese) to call (with mobile phones, pagers, beepers, etc.)
    call車／call车 [Cantonese] ― ko$^1$ ce$^1$ [Jyutping] ― to call a vehicle, especially a taxi or a van
* (Hong Kong Cantonese) to summon people

### Derived terms

* call loan
* call機 / call机
* call臺 / call台
* call鐘 / call钟
* 奪命連環call / 夺命连环call (duómìng liánhuán kào)
* 打call

### References

* English Loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese

## Irish
### Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

#### Alternative forms

* cál

#### Noun

call m (genitive singular call)
* call, need
* claim, right

##### Declension

bare forms
singular
nominative
call
vocative
a chall
genitive
call
dative
call
forms with the definite article
singular
nominative
an call
genitive
an chall
dative
leis an gcall don chall :

##### Derived terms

* gan chall (“needlessly”)

### Etymology 2
#### Pronunciation

* (Ulster) IPA: /kal̪ˠ/

#### Noun

call m (genitive singular caill)
* Ulster form of coll (“hazel”)

##### Declension

bare forms
singular
nominative
call
vocative
a chaill
genitive
caill
dative
call
forms with the definite article
singular
nominative
an call
genitive
an chaill
dative
leis an gcall don chall :

### Mutation

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

### Further reading

* Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “call”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
* de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “call”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
* “call”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013-2025
* Quiggin, E. C. (1906) A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, page 79

## Portuguese
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English call.

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /ˈkɔw/ [ˈkɔʊ̯]
* Hyphenation: call

### Noun

call m or f (plural calls)
* (Internet slang) a call (audio or video conversation)
    Synonym: chamada
    Vamos fazer call mais tarde?Wanna go on VC later?

### Further reading

* “call”, in Dicionário inFormal (in Portuguese), 2006–2025

## Scottish Gaelic
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kʰaul̪ˠ/

### Noun

call m (genitive singular calla, plural callaidhean)
* verbal noun of caill
* loss
* waste

#### Derived terms

* call cumhachd

### Mutation

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Scottish Gaelic. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

## Welsh
### Etymology

Possible borrowing from Latin callidus (“wise, clever; cunning”) (and if so, doublet of caled (“hard”)).

### Pronunciation

* (North Wales) IPA: /kaɬ/
* (South Wales) IPA: /ka(ː)ɬ/
* Rhymes: -aɬ

### Adjective

call (feminine singular call, plural call, equative called, comparative callach, superlative callaf)
* wise, sensible, rational
    Synonyms: doeth, deallus

#### Derived terms

* angall (“foolish, unwise”)
* callineb (“wisdom, rationality”)
* callio (“to become wise, to wise up”)
* hanner call (“half-witted, crazy”)

### Mutation

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

### Further reading

* R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “call”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies