acoustic coupler

noun

: a device that converts digital signals to audio signals in order to allow the transmission of data (as from a computer) over a telephone line

An acoustic coupler …, tightly strapped to the phone receiver, allows the computer to fire audio tones directly through the handset, the way we do when we speak.

—Jack Hitt and Paul Tough, Esquire, December 1990

Word History

First Known Use

1968, in the meaning defined above

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