Addresses

How to spell addresses

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce addresses

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does addresses mean?

1. nounThe plural of address: the details that identify where a person, building, or online resource is located.
2. verbThird-person singular form of the verb address: speaks to, deals with, or directs attention to something.

Addresses in a sentence

• noun

  The courier struggled to read the smudged addresses on the parcels.

• verb

  The manager always addresses the team before a difficult shift.

• noun

  The spreadsheet stores customer names alongside their email addresses.

• verb

  This chapter addresses the most common tax mistakes.

Where does addresses come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the Latin directus, meaning 'straightened' or 'set in a straight line', from the verb dirigere 'to direct or guide'. Old French reshaped it into adrecier, 'to set straight, aim, or direct toward something', built with the prefix a- (from Latin ad, 'to' or 'toward'). English borrowed it in the late 1300s, first in the sense of making something straight or directing it, then of directing words to a person, which is why a speech and a postal direction share the same root. The familiar modern meaning of a place where someone lives grew out of that idea of directing a letter toward a person. The doubled consonants are the spelling trap here: the single d after the prefix and the double s before the ending are easy to swap, and the unstressed final syllable hides the second s.

How the word is built

• ad- (to, toward)
• dress (from Latin directus: straightened, set straight)
• -es (plural/third-person suffix)