postal

See also: postał and poștal

English

Etymology

From post +‎ -al, modelled on French postal.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): [ˈpoʊstl̩]
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): [ˈpəʊstl̩]

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊstəl
• Hyphenation US: post‧al, UK: pos‧tal

Adjective

postal (not comparable)

1. Relating to the collection, sorting and delivery of mail.

   He's a postal worker, and has been in the postal industry for decades.

   We sell stamps and stationery for all your postal needs.

2. (US, slang) Crazy, insane.

   to go postal

   • 1999, "Daria Dance Party" (Daria, season 3 episode 4)

     SANDI: Maybe I should just have my own party, since you obviously think I'm postal.

Derived terms

• nonpostal
• postal address
• postal authority
• postal ballot
• postal blue
• postal box
• postal carrier
• postal code
• postal forgery
• postal history
• postally
• postal money order
• postal money-order
• postal note
• postal office
• postal order
• postal outlet
• postal rule
• postal service
• postal station
• postal village
• postal vote
• postal worker
• postique
• semipostal
• semi-postal stamp

Related terms

• post
• post office
• postally used

Translations

relating to mail — see also missive

• Arabic: بَرِيدِيّ (barīdiyy)
• Armenian: փոստային (hy) (pʻostayin)
• Belarusian: пашто́вы (paštóvy)
• Bulgarian: по́щенски (póštenski)
• Catalan: postal
• Czech: poštovní (cs)
• Esperanto: poŝta
• Finnish: posti- (fi)
• French: postal (fr)
• German: Post- (de), postalisch (de)
• Greek: ταχυδρομικός (el) (tachydromikós)
• Hungarian: postai (hu)
• Italian: postale (it)
• Macedonian: поштенски (poštenski)
• Persian: پستی (fa) (posti)
• Polish: pocztowy (pl)
• Portuguese: postal (pt)
• Romanian: poștal (ro)
• Russian: почто́вый (ru) (počtóvyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: uses genitive case of noun
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: по̏штанскӣ

  Latin: pȍštanskī (sh)

• Sicilian: pustali
• Slovak: poštový
• Slovene: poštni
• Spanish: postal (es)
• Ukrainian: пошто́вий (poštóvyj)

Noun

postal (plural postals)

1. (archaic) This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

References

• Tony Thorne (2014), “postal”, in Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, 4th edition, London;  […]: Bloomsbury

Anagrams

• A plots, plasto-, ploats

Catalan

Etymology

From posta +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern, Central) [pusˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia, Northwestern) [posˈtal]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Adjective

postal m or f (masculine and feminine plural postals)

1. postal

Noun

postal f (plural postals)

1. clipping of targeta postal

Further reading

• “postal”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

French

Etymology

From poste +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɔs.tal/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

postal (feminine postale, masculine plural postaux, feminine plural postales)

1. postal

Derived terms

• boîte postale
• carte postale
• code postal

Further reading

• “postal”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /posˈtaw/ [posˈtaʊ̯]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /posˈtaw/ [posˈtaʊ̯]
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /poʃˈtaw/ [poʃˈtaʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /puʃˈtal/ [puʃˈtaɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /puʃˈtal/ [puʃˈtaɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /puʃˈta.li/

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: pos‧tal

Adjective

postal m or f (plural postais)

1. postal (relating to mail)

Noun

postal m (plural postais)

1. postcard

   Synonyms: cartão-postal, bilhete-postal

Further reading

• “postal”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “postal”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Adjective

postal m or n (feminine singular postală, masculine plural postali, feminine/neuter plural postale)

1. obsolete form of poștal

Declension

Declension of postal

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	postal		postală	postali	postale
	definite	postalul		postala	postalii	postalele
genitive- dative	indefinite	postal		postale	postali	postale
	definite	postalului		postalei	postalilor	postalelor

References

• postal in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Spanish posta

Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-

Proto-Indo-European *-is

Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.?

Proto-Italic *-ālis

Latin -ālis

Spanish -al

Spanish postal

From posta + -al.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /posˈtal/ [posˈt̪al]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: pos‧tal

Adjective

postal m or f (masculine and feminine plural postales)

1. postal

Derived terms

• apartado postal
• código postal
• correo postal
• sello postal
• tarjeta postal

Related terms

• telepostal

Noun

postal f (plural postales)

1. postcard

Further reading

• “postal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
• “telepostal”, in Diccionario de americanismos [Dictionary of Americanisms] (in Spanish), Association of Academies of the Spanish Language [Spanish: Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española], 2010