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Office & Administration vocabulary · Phone Calls & Etiquette

Put on hold

Meaning in office & administration, with examples

phraseCore term

In office & administration, put on hold means: To keep a caller waiting on the line for a short time, usually while you check something or find the right person.

In Turkish: beklemeye almak, hatta bekletmek, askıya almak

How it is used

Usually put someone on hold or be on hold. It is polite to ask first: "Can I put you on hold for a moment?" and to thank the caller when you come back: "Thank you for holding." It can also mean to delay a plan: "The office move has been put on hold."

Example sentences

  1. I'll just put you on hold while I check if he's free.

  2. They put me on hold for twenty minutes before anyone answered.

Common collocations

  • put someone on hold
  • be on hold
  • thank you for holding
  • put a project on hold
  • put throughTo connect a caller to the person or department they want to speak to by transferring the call.
  • take a messageTo write down information from a caller for someone who is not available, such as the caller's name, number and reason for calling.
  • May I ask who's calling?A polite question used on the phone to find out the caller's name before passing them to the person they want to speak to.
  • switchboardThe central phone system of an organisation, or the team that answers the main number and connects callers to the right extension.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Phone Calls & Etiquette

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