Sender

How to spell sender

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sender

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sender mean?

1. nounThe person or organisation that sends something, such as a letter, parcel, or message.

Sender in a sentence

• The return address tells the postal service who the sender is.

• The email listed the sender as an unfamiliar company.

Where does sender come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built from the everyday verb 'send', which comes from the Old English sendan, meaning to cause something to go or to dispatch it. That verb traces back to a shared Germanic root, with close cousins in Dutch zenden and German senden, all carrying the same sense of making something travel from one place to another. The agent suffix '-er', also of Germanic origin, attaches to verbs to name the person or thing performing the action, just as 'bake' yields 'baker' and 'teach' yields 'teacher'. So 'sender' literally means 'one who sends', and the word has stayed plain and transparent throughout its history. Because both the root and the suffix are native English, the spelling holds no surprises: it is simply send plus er.

How the word is built

• send (from Old English sendan: to dispatch)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)