mail

English

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• enPR: māl, IPA: /meɪl/, SAMPA: /meIl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪl
• Homophone: male

Etymology 1

From Middle English male (“bag, mail”), from Old French male (“bag, wallet”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *malha (“bag”), from Proto-Germanic *malhō (“bag, pouch”), from Proto-Indo-European *molko- (“leather pouch”). Cognate with Old High German malha, malaha, Middle Dutch male (“bag”), Old Norse malr (“sack, pouch”).

Noun

mail (countable and uncountable; plural mails)

1. (uncountable) regular delivery of letters and small parcels.
2. (not used in plural form) An organisation which operates such service (e.g. in Britain the Royal Mail)
3. A single batch of mail picked up or delivered by such a service

   Don't forget to pick up the mail on your way.

   • 1823, The stranger in Liverpool; or, An historical and descriptive view of the town of Liverpool and its environs, Seventh Edition,^[1] T. Kaye, page 96,

     The following are the hours at which the letter-box of this office is closed for making up the several mails, and the hours at which each mail is despatched: ¶ […]

   • 1887, John Houston Merrill (editor), The American and English Encyclopædia of Law, Volume I,^[2] Edward Thompson, page 121,

     If he retains the account, and permits several mails to pass without objecting to it, he will be held to have admitted its correctness.

4. See mails.
5. (uncountable) electronic mail, e-mail: a computer network–based service for sending, storing, and forwarding electronic messages

Synonyms

• (regular deliver of letters and small parcels): post (UK, Ireland, other dialects?)

Derived terms

terms derived from mail

accountable mail air mail chain mail e-mail email electronic mail fan mail hate mail

junk mail mailbag mail boat mail bomb mailbox mail call mail carrier mail fraud

mailman mailmerge mail order mail plane mail relay mailroom mail slot

mail stop mail train mail truck mails snail mail voice mail vote-by-mail webmail

Translations

regular delivery of letters and small parcels

Arabic: بريد (ar) (bariid) m. Armenian: փոստ (hy) (p'ost) Chinese: Mandarin: 郵件 (zh), 邮件 (zh) (yóujiàn) Czech: pošta (cs) f. Danish: post (da) Dutch: post (nl) f. Finnish: posti (fi) French: courrier (fr) m., poste (fr) f. German: Post (de) f. Greek: ταχυδρομείο (el) (tachydromío) n. Hindi: डाक (hi) (ḍāk) f. Hungarian: posta (hu)

Italian: posta (it) f. Japanese: 郵便 (ja) (ゆうびん, yūbin) Korean: 우편물 (ko) (upyeonmul) Latvian: pasts (lv) Lithuanian: paštas (lt) m. Persian: پست (fa) (post) Portuguese: correio (pt) m. Romanian: poștă (ro) f. Russian: почта (ru) (póčta) f. Slovak: pošta  (sk) f. Spanish: correo (es) m. Swedish: post (sv) c. Urdu: ڈاک (ur) (ḍāk) f.

organisation

Armenian: փոստ (hy) (p'ost) Czech: pošta (cs) f. Danish: postvæsenet (da), (qoloquial) posten (da) Finnish: posti (fi) French: poste (fr) f. German: Post (de) f. Greek: ταχυδρομείο (el) (tachydromío) n. Hungarian: posta (hu)

Italian: posta (it) f. Latvian: pasts (lv) Lithuanian: paštas (lt) m. Portuguese: correio (pt) Russian: почта (ru) (póčta) f. Slovak: pošta  (sk) f. Swedish: post (sv) c.

parcels and letters

Czech: pošta (cs) f. Danish: post (da) Finnish: posti (fi) French: poste (fr) German: Post (de) f. Greek: αλληλογραφία (el) (alilografía) f., ταχυδρομείο (el) (tachydromío) n. Interlingua: posta (ia) Italian: posta (it) f.

Latvian: pasts (lv) Lithuanian: paštas (lt) m. Lojban: se mrilu Russian: почта (ru) (póčta) f., корреспонденция (ru) f. Slovak: pošta  (sk) f. Swedish: post (sv) c. Yiddish: פּאָסט (yi) (post) f.

electronic mail

Danish: mail (da), e-mail (da), e-post (da) Finnish: meilit (fi) French: courrier électronique (fr), courriel (fr), e-mail (fr), mail (fr) German: E-Mail (de) f. Greek: ηλεκτρονικό ταχυδρομείο (el) (ilektronikó tachydromío) n. Italian: posta (it) f., posta elettronica (it) f., e-mail (it) f.

Latvian: e-pasts (lv), (qoloquial) mails (lv) Russian: электронная почта (ru) (elektrónnaja póčta) f., почта (ru) (póčta) f., мыло (ru) (mýlo) n. (slang) Spanish: correo electrónico (es) m., mail (es) m. Swedish: mejl (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Serbo-Croatian: pošta f. (1-4), poštanski (bs) Hebrew: דואר (do'ar) Interlingua: posta (1, 2, 4); currero, correspondentia (3); malia (5)

Portuguese: correio m., (rare:) posta f. (1, 2, 3, 4); correspondência f. (3); malha f. (5) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: пошта f. (1-4), поштански (sr) (poštanski) Roman: pošta f. (1-4)

Verb

mail (third-person singular simple present mails, present participle mailing, simple past and past participle mailed)

1. (transitive) to send (a letter or parcel) through the mail

Synonyms

• (send through the mail): post

Derived terms

• mailer
• mailing

Translations

to send via the post

Arabic: بريد (ar) Bosnian: poslati (bs) Finnish: postittaa (fi) Greek: ταχυδρομώ (el) (takhiδromó) Hungarian: levél (hu) Interlingua: postar (ia), inviar (ia)

Italian: inviare (it), impostare (it) Lojban: mrilu (jbo) Portuguese: postar (pt), enviar (pt), remeter (pt), expedir (pt) Serbian: послати (sr) (poslati) Swedish: posta (sv)

Etymology 2

From Middle English maille (“mail armor”), from Old French maille, from Latin macula (“blemish, mesh”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *smh₁-tleh₂, from *smeh₁- (“smear, rub”).

Noun

Mail

mail (uncountable)

1. (uncountable) armour consisting of metal rings or plates linked together.

Derived terms

• chain mail
• plate mail
• scale mail
• mailed

Translations

armour consisting of metal rings or plates linked together

Finnish: rengaspanssari (fi) Hungarian: páncél (hu) Latin: sūta (la) n. pl.

Portuguese: malha (pt) f. Russian: кольчуга (ru) (kol'čúga) f.

Adjective

mail (not comparable)

1. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) made of armoured material (a mail shirt)

Translations

armoured

Finnish: rengaspanssari- (chain mail) (prefix in compound words) Interlingua: de malia

Portuguese: de malha

Etymology 3

Middle English mal, male from Old English māl "speech, contract, agreement" from Old Norse māl "agreement, speech, lawsuit". Akin to Old English mǣl "speech"

Alternative forms

• maill

Noun

mail (plural mails)

1. (Chiefly Scottish) a monetary payment or tribute
2. rent
3. tax

Anagrams

• alim, Liam, Lima, Mali

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eːl

Verb

mail

1. first-person singular present indicative of mailen.
2. imperative of mailen.

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Fiji Hindi

Etymology

From English mile (“imperial measure of distance”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /maɪl/

Noun

mail

1. mile

References

• Fiji Hindi Dictionary

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA: /maj/

Etymology 1

Latin malleus (“hammer”)

Noun

mail m. (plural mails)

1. mallet
2. (sports, historical) pall mall
3. mall, promenade
4. (Quebec) mall, shopping mall

Etymology 2

From English email

Noun

mail m. (plural mails)

1. email

Synonyms

• mél

Anagrams

• lima

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Italian

Etymology

English

Noun

mail f. inv.

1. email

Anagrams

• almi
• lami
• lima
• mali, Mali
• mila

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Romansch

Alternative forms

• (Sursilvan, Surmiran) meil
• (Sutsilvan) mel

Etymology

From Latin mālum. Compare Romanian măr.

Noun

mail m. (plural mails)

1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Vallader) apple

Synonyms

• (Puter) pom