What does call mean?
"Call" is one of the most versatile words in everyday English, serving both as a verb and a noun across a remarkable range of uses. At its core, it means to utter something loudly or distinctly in order to attract attention — calling a child in from the garden, calling out a warning — and by extension it came to mean contacting someone by telephone, now perhaps its single most frequent use. It also means to name or designate ("they called the ship Endeavour"), to make a decision or judgment ("the umpire called it fair"), to pay a short visit ("she called on her aunt"), and even to halt or cancel an event ("the match was called off"). As a noun, a call can be a phone conversation, a shouted summons, the cry of an animal, a decision, or a demand. The tone of "call" is generally neutral, fitting everything from casual chat to formal reports. Derived forms such as "calling," "caller," and "recall" extend its usefulness further.
To shout out, telephone, name, decide upon, or visit someone or something.
"He called out to his dog across the field."
Takes many idiomatic extensions: call off (cancel), call on (visit or invite to speak), call for (require).
An act of telephoning, a shouted summons, the characteristic cry of an animal or bird, a decision, or a formal request.
"I missed your call earlier — what did you want?"
Plural "calls"; also used in finance and computing for specialized senses (e.g., a function call).
Standard regular plural; used for multiple phone calls, animal cries, decisions, or bids.
"The office received dozens of calls after the announcement."
The word "call" comes straight from the Vikings — Old Norse "kalla" — making it one of the many everyday words English picked up during the Viking age.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of call
The word comes from Old Norse "kalla," meaning to cry out, brought to Britain during the Viking settlements of the early Middle Ages. It displaced or coexisted with native Old English terms for shouting and gradually widened its meaning: first a loud summons, then a spoken request or invitation, later the act of visiting, and eventually — with the arrival of the telephone — the sense of contacting someone remotely that dominates modern usage. Its Norse origin makes it part of the substantial layer of Scandinavian vocabulary absorbed into English.
Related word forms
How call is actually used
Extremely common and neutral in register, used equally in casual speech and formal writing. In British usage, phoning someone is often expressed as "giving someone a ring," while American usage favors "calling." As a verb for naming things ("call it X") it takes a direct object plus a complement.
Easily confused with call
"Coll" is a rare dialectal term for a collar or neckband, whereas "call" means to summon or phone someone.