mail

MAYL/meɪl/

Pluralmails

Verbmails, mailing, mailed

17 meanings of mail

Practice

1
delivered itemsnouncountable or uncountable
Letters, packages, and other items sent and delivered by the postal service, especially those delivered to a particular person or address.
Severe weather delayed the mail across the region for two days.
Workers at the depot load mail onto outgoing trucks each evening.
UsageUsually the mail or some mail; for one item, say a letter or a parcel.
Note
Today it is mostly a mass noun: the mail, some mail. Nineteenth-century English counted it, though. The American and English Encyclopædia of Law (1887) speaks of letting "several mails" pass, meaning successive deliveries. Since email arrived, the paper kind has picked up the joking retronym snail mail when the contrast needs spelling out.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Nineteenth-century English used countable forms of mail. en.wiktionary.org
The work contains “several mails” in a passage about allowing successive postal deliveries to pass. en.wiktionary.org
Snail mail serves as a retronym contrasting physical postal mail with email. en.wiktionary.org
2
send by postverb
To send a letter, parcel, or similar item through the postal service.
She will mail the contract first thing tomorrow.
They mailed the invitations three weeks before the wedding.
UsageMail something to someone, or mail someone something. British English usually says post.
Similarpost, send, dispatch
3
internet postnoununcountable
Electronic mail: the system for sending messages between computers over a network, or the messages sent and received this way, taken together.
The company moved all its internal mail to a new server over the weekend.
Her mail had been down all morning, so the message never reached her.
Similaremail
4
postal systemnouncountable or uncountable
The postal service or system considered as a whole.
Before email, businesses depended on the mail for nearly all correspondence.
A nationwide strike shut down the mail for several weeks.
UsageUsually after a preposition: by mail, in the mail, through the mail. British English usually says by post.
Similarpost
5
one online messagenounIndiacountable
A single electronic message sent or received through email.
A mail from the recruiter arrived just after midnight.
He flagged the mail so he wouldn't forget to reply.
UsageCounted here: a mail, several mails. For an international reader, an email is the safer word for one message.
Similaremail
6
send onlineverb
To send a message or file to someone by email, or to contact someone by email.
She mailed the spreadsheet to her manager before lunch.
As soon as the meeting ends, she'll mail everyone a link to the shared folder.
UsageSame patterns as the postal verb: mail the file to someone, mail someone a link. Email is the more common verb.
Similaremail
Note
The verb moved online early. Donn Seeley, writing in net.unix-wizards in 1983, is already reluctant "to mail the file to ARPA sites." Only context tells you whether a stamp or a server is involved.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
The electronic verb is attested in 1983 in a net.unix-wizards post by Donn Seeley. en.wiktionary.org
Seeley expresses reluctance to email the file and uses the quoted wording. en.wiktionary.org

Less common meanings

7
ring armornoununcountable
Flexible armor made of interlinked metal rings or small overlapping plates.
The soldier's mail turned aside the glancing blow.
Rings of mail covered him from neck to knee.
UsageUseful phrases include chain mail, a coat of mail, and a mail shirt.
Similarchainmail
Note
An entirely separate word from the postal one. It comes through Old French maille, "loop, stitch," from Latin macula, "mesh," so the rings are the meshes. It is a mass noun: Ruskin's knight "is laid in his mail." A single garment is a coat of mail, as in Norma Lorre Goodrich's Beowulf, where a ship is "laden with coats of mail."
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
The armour word has a separate origin from postal mail: the former derives from French maille, while the latter derives from French male, meaning a bag or wallet. en.wiktionary.org
The armour word comes through Old French maille from Latin macula. en.wiktionary.org
Old French maille is glossed as loop or stitch. en.wiktionary.org
Latin macula can mean a mesh, and in medieval Latin specifically a ring of mail armour. en.wiktionary.org
Ruskin describes a knight using the exact words quoted. web.english.upenn.edu
Norma Lorre Goodrich's “Beowulf,” within The Medieval Myths, describes a ship as laden with coats of mail. en.wiktionary.org
8
post vehiclenoundatedcountable or uncountable
A stagecoach, train, or ship that delivers letters and parcels.
All trains stop at all stations, with the exception of a few "local" stations near Mombasa and an odd flag stop or two usually missed by the mails.
1950, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”
Note
The vehicle took the name of its cargo. In railway writing the mail is simply the mail train: Modern Railways in 1962 has a diesel heading "the 3 a.m. mail to Hull," and the plural mails means several such trains. The usage is dated, but it lingers in railway history. RAIL in 2022 still retells the cry "Where's the mail?" on the line to Fordham.
9
nounarchaiccountable or uncountable
A bag holding letters to be carried and delivered by post.
Note
Here the word stands halfway between luggage and letters. It is still a bag, as in the old travel bag, but now one reserved for post. From this sense the name slid onto what the bag held, and later onto the vehicle that carried it. That is why mail can mean the letters, the coach, or the whole system.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
The postal word developed from an older word for a travelling bag. en.wikipedia.org
Mail had a specific sense meaning a bag containing letters for postal delivery. en.wiktionary.org
The name of the postal bag subsequently came to denote its contents. en.wikipedia.org
The vehicle sense came later than the postal-bag and letters senses. en.wikipedia.org
Mail also denotes the postal system. en.wiktionary.org
10
verbobsoletetransitive
To restrain by binding the wings or arms; to pinion.
Similarpinion, bind, truss
11
nounobsoleteuncountable
A speckle on the plumage of a bird; also, a feather marked with such speckles.
[T]he moorish-fly: made with the body of duskish wool; and the wings made of the blackish mail of the drake.
1676, Izaak Walton, “[The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation: Part I.] Fovrth Day.”
Note
Here the Latin macula, "blemish, spot," shows through. It is the same source as the ring armor, but this sense keeps the older idea of a mark. Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler dresses a fly with "the blackish mail of the drake."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Latin macula means a blemish or spot. en.wiktionary.org
The feather-marking sense and the armor sense share the Latin root; the feather sense preserves its meaning of a mark. en.wiktionary.org
Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler describes an artificial fly using the exact words "the blackish mail of the drake"; the passage is spoken by Piscator. gutenberg.org
12
nounrare
The hard protective covering of an animal, such as the scales and plates of reptiles or the shell of a lobster.
There beryl, pearl, and opal pale, / And metal wrought like fishes' mail, / Buckler and corslet, axe and sword, / And shining spears were laid in hoard.
1954, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “A Journey in the Dark”
13
nounobsolete
A bag, trunk, or box for carrying clothing and other belongings when traveling.
“Fetch me the little private mail with the padlocks, that I recommended to your particular charge — d'ye hear?”
1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord
14
verbarchaic
To equip or protect someone with mail: flexible armor made of interlinked metal rings.
15
nounobsolete
A device of interlinked rings used to rub loose hemp off lines and white cordage.
16
noun
A former French coin equal in value to half a denier.
17
noundialectalScotland
In Scottish usage, a payment due, such as rent, tribute, or tax.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of mail apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–6, 8–9

The word was male in Middle English, borrowed through Anglo-Norman and Old French male ("bag, wallet"). Behind that French word lies Frankish *malha ("bag"), which goes back to Proto-Germanic *malhō ("bag, pouch") and perhaps further to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "leather pouch".

Meanings 7, 10–11

Latin macula ("blemish, mesh"), probably derived from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "smear, rub," became Vulgar Latin *macla and then Old French maille ("loop, stitch"). Middle English borrowed maille as mayle ("mail armor").