Inbox

How to spell inbox

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce inbox

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does inbox mean?

1. nounThe folder or area in an email or messaging system where incoming messages are received and held.
2. verbTo send someone a private message directly, especially through social media or email.

Inbox in a sentence

• noun

  She opened her inbox and found forty unread messages.

• verb

  Please inbox me the details and I will reply this evening.

• noun

  The confirmation email should arrive in your inbox within minutes.

• verb

  Customers can inbox the company for a faster response.

Where does inbox come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a modern compound built from the everyday English words 'in' and 'box', and it descends directly from the office 'in-box' (or 'in-tray'), the physical tray on a desk where incoming paperwork was placed to be dealt with, contrasted with the matching 'out-box' for outgoing items. The word 'box' itself reaches back through Old English 'box' to the Late Latin 'buxis', a variant of Latin 'pyxis', meaning a small container, often one turned from boxwood; 'in' is a native Germanic word that has signified motion or position inwards since the earliest English. When electronic mail arrived in the second half of the twentieth century, software designers borrowed the familiar office metaphor, and the two-word 'in box' was steadily fused into the single solid form 'inbox' that dominates today. Because it is a transparent compound, the only real spelling trap is remembering it is now written closed up, with no space and no hyphen.

How the word is built

• in- (incoming, into)
• box (container, receptacle)