Email

How to spell email

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce email

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does email mean?

1. nounA message, or the system for sending messages, transmitted electronically between computers or devices.
2. verbTo send a message or document to someone electronically.

Email in a sentence

• noun

  She checked her email before the morning meeting.

• verb

  Please email the report to the whole team by noon.

• noun

  The invoice arrived by email within minutes of the order.

• verb

  I will email you the details once the booking is confirmed.

Where does email come from?

Language of origin: French

Email is a clipped compound of 'electronic mail', a term that arose in computing circles during the 1970s as networked machines began passing typed messages between users. The second half, 'mail', traces back through Old French 'male', meaning a travelling bag or wallet, which itself came from a Germanic word for a pouch or sack; over centuries 'mail' shifted from the bag that carried letters to the letters themselves. The 'e-' prefix simply stands for 'electronic', the same shorthand seen in 'e-commerce' and 'e-book'. The hyphenated form 'e-mail' was common at first, but by the 2000s the closed spelling 'email' had become standard in most everyday writing. The lone 'e' followed straight by 'mail' is the usual spelling trap, since some writers still add a hyphen or double the letters.

How the word is built

• e- (short for electronic)
• mail (letters or messages sent)