Rotary dial
（重定向自Voice dial）
![A traditional North American rotary phone dial. The associative lettering was originally used for dialing named exchanges, but was kept because it facilitated memorization of telephone numbers.](/Images/godic/202502/20/Rotarydial5201.JPG")
![The LM Ericsson Dialog from the 1960s that remained popular in Sweden up until the 1980s](/Images/godic/202502/20/Ericsson_Dialog_in_green5201.JPG")
![1910 Advertisement for dial telephone service in Chicago from the Illinois Tunnel Company, showing Automatic Electric-made phone](/Images/godic/202502/20/IllinoisTunnelAdNews5201.png")
![A 1931 Ericsson rotary dial telephone without lettering on the finger wheel, typical of European telephones. The 0 precedes 1.](/Images/godic/202502/20/Ericsson_bakelittelefon_19315201.jpg")
A rotary dial is a component of a telephone or a telephone switchboard that implements a signaling technology in telecommunications known as pulse dialing. It is used when initiating a telephone call to transmit the destination telephone number to a telephone exchange.