# dial
## English
### Etymology

The original meaning was 'sundial' and/or 'clock dial'; from Middle English diall, from Middle French dyal, from Latin diālis (“daily, concerning the day”), because of its use in telling the time of day, from Latin diēs (“day”). Compare Spanish dial and día (“day”).

### Pronunciation

* (UK, US) IPA: /ˈdaɪ.əl/, [ˈdaɪ.əɫ]
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -aɪəl
* Hyphenation: di‧al

### Noun

dial (plural dials)
* A graduated, circular scale over which a needle moves to show a measurement (such as speed).
    Holonyms: (often holonymous) instrument, gauge
    The dial on the dashboard showed the car was nearly out of gas.
** Such a field as part of a clock face; (metonymically) the entire clock face.
    Comeronyms: hour hand, little hand; minute hand, big hand; second hand
* A sundial.
* A panel on a radio etc showing wavelengths or channels; a knob that is turned to change the wavelength etc.
    Turn the dial to Radio 4: my favourite show is on!
* A disk with finger holes on a telephone; used to select the number to be called.
    His hands were too fat to operate the dial on the telephone.
* (UK, Australia, slang) A person's face. [from 19th c.]
** 1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, page 90:“Well, all I can say is that if yer don't take yer dial outer the road I'll bloomin' well take an' bounce a gibber off yer crust.”
** 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter IX, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:At the sound of the old familiar voice he spun around with something of the agility of a cat on hot bricks, and I saw that his dial, usually cheerful, was contorted with anguish, as if he had swallowed a bad oyster.
** 2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, Giramondo, published 2012, page 137:Old Mona Lisa would have looked like a sour lemon beside Angel Day on the rare days she put a smile on her dial, laughing with her friends when some new man was in town.
* A miner's compass.

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Verb

dial (third-person singular simple present dials, present participle (US) dialing or dialling, simple past and past participle (US) dialed or dialled)
* (transitive) To control or select something with a dial, or (figuratively) as if with a dial.
    The president has recently dialled down the rhetoric.
* (transitive) To select a number, or to call someone, on a telephone.
    In an emergency dial 999.
* (intransitive) To use a dial or a telephone.
    Please be careful when dialling.

#### Usage notes

* The spellings dialing and dialed are more common in the US. Dialling and dialled are more common elsewhere.

#### Derived terms

* autodial
* butt dial
* compass dial
* dead dial
* dialable
* dial-a-joke
* dial-a-ride
* dial-a-ride problem
* dial-around
* dial-a-yield
* dial back
* dial down
* dial down a notch
* dialer (US)
* dial gauge
* dial-in
* dial in
* dial indicator
* dial into
* dialist
* dial it in
* dialless
* diallist
* dial lock
* dial number
* dial out
* dialpainter
* dial tone
* dial-up
* dial up
* direct-dial
* don't touch that dial
* drunk dial
* mine dial
* miner's dial
* misdial
* moondial
* move the dial
* pocket-dial
* pocket dial
* predial
* radium dial
* redial
* reset the dial
* rotary dial
* rotary-dial
* shadow dial
* shift the dial
* speed dial
* speed-dial
* subdial
* tide dial
* undialed
* undialled
* video dial tone
* war-dial

#### Translations
### Anagrams

* Dail, Dali, Dalí, dali, laid

## North Frisian
### Etymology 1

From Proto-Germanic *dailą.

#### Noun

dial n or m (plural dialen) (Föhr-Amrum)
* part, portion
    Synonym: part
* piece, item

##### Usage notes

* Originally neuter in both senses. In sense 1 now predominantly masculine after German Teil.

##### Alternative forms

* diilj (Mooring)
* Diil (Sylt)

### Etymology 2

From Proto-Germanic *dailijaną. Related with the noun above.

#### Verb

dial
* (Föhr-Amrum) to divide

##### Alternative forms

* diile (Mooring)
* diili (Sylt)

## Spanish
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈdaial/ [ˈd̪ai̯.al]
* Rhymes: -aial
* Syllabification: dial

### Noun

dial m (plural diales)
* dial

### Further reading

* “dial”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

## Welsh
### Etymology

From Middle Welsh dial, from Old Welsh digal, from Proto-Brythonic *diɣal, from Proto-Celtic *dī-galā. Cognate with Cornish dial, Breton dial and Old Irish dígal and its modern derivatives.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈdiː.al/
* Rhymes: -iːal

### Noun

dial m (plural dialau or dialon)
* revenge, vengeance
    Synonym: dialedd

### Verb

dial (first-person singular present dialaf)
* to avenge, to get one's own back
    Synonyms: talu'n ôl, talu'r pwyth yn ôl

#### Usage notes

* This verb is followed by the preposition ar.

#### Conjugation

Note: All other forms are periphrastic, as usual in colloquial Welsh.

#### Derived terms

* dialedd (“vengence, nemesis”)
* dialgar (“vengeful”)
* dialwr (“avenger”)
* dialydd (“avenger”)

### 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), “dial”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies