DictionaryAI

email

SayEE-maylUS/ˈiˌmeɪl//ˈiːmeɪl/

Pluralemails

Verbemails, emailing, emailed

5 meanings of email

Practice

  1. 1
    messagenouncountable or uncountable
    A message sent from one person to another through an email system, or such messages considered together.

    The manager sent an email to the whole team about the schedule change.

    Hundreds of emails flooded the support inbox after the outage.

    Usagean email, two emails; for messages as a mass, no article: too much email.

    Similarmail

  2. 2
    message systemnoununcountable
    A system for sending messages and data between computers connected in a network.

    Email has largely replaced printed memos in most offices.

    The company still relies on email for all official announcements.

    UsageUsually no article: send something by email or via email, as you would by post.

    Note

    A 1970s clipping of electronic mail, and the root that every modern use of the word grows from. Plain mail can mean the same thing, yet mail is also its opposite, alongside post and the playful snail mail for letters on paper.

  3. 3
    send onlineverbtransitive or intransitive
    To send a message, document, or file to someone by email; also, to write and send emails.

    Please email the supplier and ask about the delayed shipment.

    A recruiter emailed her about an opening at the firm.

    UsageEmail someone with no to: email the supplier (not incorrect: email to the supplier); but email the report to the team.

    Note

    The verb was formed from the noun on the pattern of mail, meaning to send by post, and this is its most direct use. The person comes straight after the verb with no to: email me, email the supplier. A thing sent takes to instead: email the report to the team. The noun itself shortens electronic mail.

  4. 4
    addressnouncolloquialcountable
    Someone's address for receiving email; an informal shorthand for email address.

    He gave the receptionist his email instead of a phone number.

    Make sure your email is spelled correctly on the application.

    UsageCommon in What's your email? and my work email; on official forms, write email address in full.

Less common meaning

  1. 5
    e-MAYL/ɛˈmeɪl/
    nounobsolete
    Enamel; a hard, opaque, glossy coating fused onto a surface such as metal or pottery.
    Note

    An unrelated word that only shares the spelling: Middle French email, "enamel," from a root meaning "to melt, to soften." Thomas Nashe writes in 1594 of wine turned to "red emayle" by Iceland's frosts, an older spelling of the same word.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of email apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–4

The noun began in the 1970s as a shortened "electronic mail." The verb was made from the noun, following "mail" in its sense "to send through the mail."

Meaning 5

Borrowed from Middle French "email," from Old French "esmal" ("enamel"), from Medieval Latin "smaltum" ("enamel"), and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meld- ("to melt; to soften"). It is a doublet of "smalt," "smalto," and "schmaltz."

Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

  • The separate English word email meaning enamel was borrowed from Middle French email. en.wiktionary.org
  • Middle French email derives from Old French esmal. en.wiktionary.org
  • Old French esmal means enamel and derives from Medieval Latin smaltum. en.wiktionary.org
  • Medieval Latin smaltum means enamel. en.wiktionary.org
  • Email meaning enamel ultimately derives from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meld-, meaning to melt or soften. en.wiktionary.org
  • Email meaning enamel is a doublet of smalt, smalto, and schmaltz. en.wiktionary.org