What does crosstalk mean?
Crosstalk refers to the unintended transfer of a signal from one communication channel or electrical circuit to another, so that what should remain distinct becomes contaminated by interference. It arises when wires or conductors run close together and electromagnetic energy couples between them, causing a faint echo of one transmission to appear on a neighbouring line — most familiar as a barely audible second voice on an old telephone call. Engineers treat crosstalk as a defect to be minimised through better shielding, twisted-pair wiring, and careful circuit design, since excessive crosstalk degrades sound quality, data integrity, and network performance. The word has also spread beyond electronics: biologists speak of "crosstalk" between cellular signalling pathways that influence one another. The term derives from the older notion of crossed wires, and originally described the way separate conversations could audibly bleed into each other on telephone exchanges. Today it is firmly technical in register, appearing mostly in engineering, computing, telecommunications, and scientific writing rather than everyday speech.
Undesired signal transfer from one circuit or communication channel to another, causing interference or distortion.
"Twisted-pair wiring was introduced specifically to cut down on crosstalk between adjacent lines."
Countable but often treated informally as an uncountable quality; typically qualified with "between" or "from".
(dated) Lively, overlapping conversation in which participants speak across one another.
"The old radio comedy relied on rapid-fire crosstalk between the two comedians."
Chiefly British and historical; rare in contemporary use.
Rarely pluralized; crosstalk is usually treated as a single phenomenon or an uncountable quantity, though "crosstalks" may appear in technical writing when referring to multiple distinct instances.
"Several crosstalks were detected during the system's interference audit."
Every time you hear a faint whisper of another voice bleeding through a phone line, you're hearing crosstalk — the ghost of a signal escaping its own wire.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of crosstalk
Crosstalk combines "cross", from Old Norse "kross" via Latin "crux", with "talk", from Middle English "talken", itself possibly related to Middle Dutch "talken". The compound arose in the late nineteenth century alongside telephone and telegraph technology, describing how signals on adjacent lines interfered with one another. Its literal sense of voices crossing over wires later gave rise to both the modern electronic meaning and a brief conversational usage referring to overlapping dialogue.
How crosstalk is actually used
Almost always used attributively with technical verbs such as "reduce", "minimize", or "eliminate". The term has been adopted figuratively in biology and medicine to describe interactions between separate molecular pathways, but it remains firmly formal and technical in register. The conversational sense is chiefly historical or British and rarely encountered today.
Easily confused with crosstalk
"Cross talk" is an older two-word variant meaning animated, overlapping conversation, while "crosstalk" as one word is the standard spelling for the electronic signal-interference phenomenon.