email

• e-mail, E-mail

The noun is an abbreviation of electronic mail. First attested in the 1970s.^[1] The verb is derived from the noun, by analogy with mail (“to send through the mail”).^[2]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈiːmeɪl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈiˌmeɪl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːmeɪl

email (countable and uncountable, plural emails) (computing)

2. (uncountable) A system for sending messages and datas by means of a computer network, primarily the Internet, using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and the Internet Message Format.

   Synonym: mail

   Antonyms: mail, post, snail mail

   He sent me his details via email.

   The advent of email has simultaneously brought our society closer together and farther apart.

   Please stop sending me “constructive criticisms” via email, or telling me that “ I feel you are being defensive”, especially just after I have told you “you’re loved”. “Rewards” like that are horrible.

4. (uncountable) The quantity of messages sent through an email system.

   Synonym: mail

   Antonyms: mail, post, snail mail

   I am searching through my old email.

   My inbox used to allow only 50 MB of email at a time until last year, when they upgraded it to 2 GBs!

6. (countable) A message being sent through email.

   Synonym: mail

   Antonym: mailpiece

   He sent me an email last week to remind me about the meeting.

   I archive my old emails using a cloud-based service.

8. (countable, informal) An email address.

   What’s your email?

   In this system, your username is your email.

   Don’t send personal messages to my work email.

email (third-person singular simple present emails, present participle emailing, simple past and past participle emailed)

1. (transitive) To send an email or emails to.

   She emailed me last week, asking about the status of the project.

2. (transitive, ditransitive) To send (data) through email.

   I’ll email you the link.

   He emailed the file out to everyone.

3. (intransitive) To send, or compose and then send, one or more emails.

   Most teenagers seem to spend almost the whole day emailing and surfing the Web.

• webmail

Borrowed from Middle French email, from Old French esmal (“enamel”) (modern French émail (“enamel; vitreous enamel; glaze (coating on pottery)”)),^[3] from Medieval Latin smaltum (“enamel”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meld- (“to melt; to soften”). Doublet of smalt, smalto, and schmaltz.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: ĕ-mālʹ, IPA^(key): /ɛˈmeɪl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪl

email (plural emails)

1. (obsolete, rare) Enamel (“an opaque, glossy coating”).
   • 1579 January 11, George Puttenham, “[Appendix] Partheniades [No. 15; believed to have been presented to Elizabeth I of England on 1 January 1579 (Julian calendar)]”, in Joseph Haslewood, editor, Ancient Critical Essays upon English Poets and Poësy (Miscellanea Poetica Anglicana Antiqua; 1), volume I, London: Printed by Harding and Wright, […], for Robert Triphook, […], published 1811, →OCLC, page xxxiv:

     Set Naples courser to an asse, / Fine emerawde vnto greene glasse: / Set rich rubye to redd emayle, / The raven's plume to peacocke's tayle: / [...] / There shall no less an oddes be seene, / In myne from everye other Queene!

   • 1594, Tho[mas] Nashe, The Terrors of the Night or, A Discourse of Apparitions, London: Printed by Iohn Danter for William Iones, […], →OCLC, signature Diii; republished in Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, editor, The Complete Works of Thomas Nashe. In Four Volumes. […] (The Huth Library), volume III, London; Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire: Printed [by Hazell, Watson, and Viney] for private circulation only, 1883–1884, →OCLC, pages 242–243:

     It is reported, that the Pope long ſince gaue them [the people of Iceland] a diſpenſation to receiue the Sacrament in ale, inſomuch as for their vnceſſant froſts there, no wine but was turned to red emayle, as ſoone as euer it came amongſt them.

     In other words, the weather was so cold that wine froze and resembled red enamel.

   • 1684, [Samuel] Du Clos, “The Eighth Class. Of Cold Waters somewhat Aigre and Vinous, which Participate of a Salt Resembling the Nitre of the Ancients.”, in Observations on the Mineral Waters of France, Made in the Royal Academy of the Sciences, […] Now Made English, London: Printed for Henry Faithorne, and John Kersey […], →OCLC, pages 96–97:

     Another part of this Earth being mixt with an equal part of its Salt, and put on the Fire to melt, in part pierc'd thro the Crucible, which was found on the outside, as it were, lin'd with a Brown Email, and the inside of the Crucible was cover'd with a Clear-Red Email.

• emayle

• email ombrant

• email on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• maile, Lamie, Melia, ameli

Unadapted borrowing from English email.

email m (plural emails)

1. email

   Synonym: correu

Borrowed from English email.

email

1. email (message) (Classifier: 封 c)

• 電郵／电邮 (diànyóu)

email

1. to email (to send email to) (Classifier: 封 c)

• 電郵／电邮 (diànyóu)

Phono-semantic matching of Mandarin 疫苗 (yìmiáo, “vaccine”).

email

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, neologism, humorous or sarcastic) vaccine; inoculation

• e-mail

• IPA^(key): [ˈɛmaɪl]

email m inan

1. enamel
2. (informal) email (electronic communication)

Some institutions discourage this spelling of electronic communication in favor of e-mail.

Borrowed from Middle French émail, from Old French esmal.

• IPA^(key): /eːˈmɑi̯/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: email

email n (uncountable, no diminutive)

1. enamel

   Synonym: emaus

2. (heraldry) tincture

• emailleren

• emaus
• smalt
• smelten

From e-mail.

email m (plural emails, diminutive emailtje n)

1. nonstandard spelling of e-mail

• maile

• e-mail, E-mail

Borrowed from English email.

• IPA^(key): /i.mɛl/, /i.mɛjl/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

email m (plural emails)

1. (informal, anglicism) email

   Synonyms: courriel, courrier électronique, mail

• émail

• maile, mailé, mêlai

From French émail, from Old French esmal, from Frankish *smalt.^[1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈɛmɒjil], [ˈɛmaːj], [ˈɛmaːjl]
• Hyphenation: email

email (usually uncountable, plural emailok)

1. enamel, glaze (an opaque, glassy coating baked onto metal or ceramic objects)

   Synonym: zománc

2. enamel (the hard covering on the exposed part of a tooth)

   Synonym: fogzománc

• e-mail

• Krisztina Laczkó, Attila Mártonfi (2006), Helyesírás [Orthography], Budapest: Osiris Kiadó, →ISBN

• email in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.
• email in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2026).

Borrowed from Dutch email, from Middle French émail (Modern French émail), from Old French esmal, from Early Medieval Latin smaltum.

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /eˈmail/ [eˈma.ɪl]
• Rhymes: -ail
• Syllabification: e‧ma‧il

émail (plural email-email)

1. enamel
   1. an opaque, glassy coating baked onto metal or ceramic objects.
   2. (dentistry) the hard covering on the exposed part of a tooth.

      Synonym: enamel

Internationalism

email (plural email-email)

1. (colloquial) email

   Synonyms: pos elektronik, ratron, surat elektronik, pos-el, surel

• “email”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

email m or f (invariable)

1. email

   Synonym: e-mail

• emailare

• amile, malie

Unadapted borrowing from English email.

email m (plural emails)

1. alternative spelling of e-mail

Borrowed from French émail.

• IPA^(key): /eˈma.il/

email n (plural emailuri)

1. enamel

Unadapted borrowing from English email.

• IPA^(key): /iˈmejl/

email n (plural emailuri)

1. email

Unadapted borrowing from English.

• IPA^(key): /ˈimeil/ [ˈi.mei̯l]
• Rhymes: -imeil

email m (plural emails)

1. email
2. email address

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.