A lot of people seem to get headphones and headsets mixed up.
►Headphones have miniature speakers
(also known as drivers and transducers and receivers and receiver elements) and are mainly used for listening to music.
It's unusual to hear the word "headphone." The word almost always has an "s" at
the end. It's a contraction for "pair of headphones," like "pants" is short for
a "pair of pants" and "scissors is short for "pair of scissors."
►A Headset has miniature speakers (or a single
speaker) plus a microphone (which is also a kind of transducer), and is used for listening and talking on the phone, computer, air traffic control console,
►An earphone is a tiny speaker that fits in or on your ear, commonly used for listening to a
►EarPhone® is a tiny ear-mounted
speaker with a short microphone boom (sort of a mini headset), made by Jabra
►EarSet® is an all-in-the-ear
speaker/microphone, also made by Jabra. Similar products from other companies
are called ear buds.
►HeadPHONE is an advertising label that
Panasonic uses for some phones that have headset jacks.
►A handset is the part of a phone
that you hold in your hand. (Some people call it a receiver.) If the phone is a
cellphone, the whole phone can be called a handset.