Word.ws English Dictionary

mail

UK/meɪl/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

India/mel/

mail noun: a bag or wallet.

mail: a bag or wallet
Image: Rklawton, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

mail (countable and uncountable, plural mails)

  1. (regional) A bag or wallet.
    • What, loo, man, see here of dyce a bale; / A brydelynge caste for that is in thy male!1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte
    • Open the Males, yet guard the treaſure ſure.
      Lay out our golden wedges to the view,
      That their reflexions may amaze the Perſeans.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
  2. A bag containing letters to be delivered by post.
  3. The (physical) material conveyed by the postal service.
    • Meronym: mailpiece
    • Don't forget to pick up the mail on your way.
    Synonyms:
    snail mail
    Antonyms:
    email
    1. (US, uncountable) The letters, parcels, etc. delivered to a particular address or person.
      • It should be in your mail today, unless the post office lost it!
  4. (dated) A stagecoach, train or ship that delivers such post.
    • All trains stop at all stations, with the exception of a few "local" stations near Mombasa and an odd flag stop or two usually missed by the mails.1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 263
    • On the morning after the one-day strike, October 4, one of the Type 4s on crew-training, No. D169, was appropriated to head the 3 a.m. mail to Hull, as no steam locomotive had been lit up and the usual Hull Type 3 was not available; [...].1962 December, “Motive Power Miscellany: North Eastern Region”, in Modern Railways, pages 422, 425
  5. The postal service or system in general.
    • He decided to send his declaration by mail.
    Synonyms:
    post
  6. (uncountable) Electronic mail, e-mail: a computer network–based service for sending, storing, and forwarding electronic messages.
    • Yahoo Mail has been providing mail service since 1997.
    Synonyms:
    email
  7. (uncountable) Email messages conceived in bulk (as with the analogous sense of physical mail).
    • You've got mail [old audio clip announcing new email in the 1990s-2000s]
    Synonyms:
    email
  8. (India, countable, especially) An email message.
    • Please look through those mails and confirm whether you received the one about scheduling.
    Synonyms:
    email
  9. A trunk, box, or bag, in which clothing, etc., may be carried.
    • “Fetch me the little private mail with the padlocks, that I recommended to your particular charge — d'ye hear?”1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald...

Verb (1)

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

  1. (ditransitive) To send (a letter, parcel, etc.) through the mail.
    Synonyms:
    post
  2. (ditransitive) To send by electronic mail.
    • Please mail me the spreadsheet by the end of the day.
    • There has been a crackdown on non-ARPA use of a local ARPA gateway, so I am reluctant to attempt to mail the file to ARPA sites.1983, Donn Seeley, “Source for 'Grab'”, in net.unix-wizards (Usenet)
  3. (transitive) To contact (a person) by electronic mail.
    • I need to mail my tutor about the deadline.
    • I was horrified but my data was OK. Then, it saw it open my e-mail package and start to mail my friends. I turned the power off.2000, Carlton Alton Deltree, “Whoever did this sucks...”, in alt.comp.virus (Usenet)

Noun (2)

mail (usually uncountable, plural mails)

  1. (usually) Armour consisting of metal rings linked together.
    • The knight is laid in his mail, only the hands and face being bare.1853, John Ruskin, “Roman Renaissance”, in The Stones of Venice, volume III (The Fall), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, § LVII, page 73
    • "That's funny looking mail, Sire," said Eustace.
      "Aye, lad," said Tirian. "No Narnian dwarf smithied that. […]1956, C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle
  2. (broadly, usually) Armour consisting of small plates linked together.
  3. (usually) A contrivance of interlinked rings, for rubbing off the loose hemp on lines and white cordage.
  4. (usually) Any hard protective covering of an animal, as the scales and plates of reptiles, shell of a lobster, etc.
    • We […] strip the lobster of his scarlet mail.1716, John Gay, Epistle to the Earl of Burlington
    • There beryl, pearl, and opal pale, / And metal wrought like fishes' mail, / Buckler and corslet, axe and sword, / And shining spears were laid in hoard.1954 July 29, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “A Journey in the Dark”, in The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published...
  5. (obsolete, rare, usually) A spot on a bird's feather; by extension, a spotted feather.
    • [T]he moorish-fly: made with the body of duskish wool; and the wings made of the blackish mail of the drake.1676, Izaak Walton, “[The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation: Part I […].] Fovrth Day.”, in Richard Le Gallienne, editor, The Compleat Angler, 5th edition, London; New York, N.Y....

Verb (2)

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

  1. (transitive) To arm with mail.
  2. (transitive) To pinion.

Noun (3)

mail (countable and uncountable, plural mails)

  1. (historical) An old French coin worth half a denier.
  2. (Scotland) A monetary payment or tribute.
  3. (Scotland) Rent.
  4. (Scotland) Tax.

mail meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

mail in Hindi

postal delivery system
डाक ḍāk

mail in Tamil

அஞ்சல், அஞ்சலிடு

mail in Marathi

मेल, मेल करा

mail in Urdu

postal delivery system
ڈاک ḍāk
More languagesFewer languages
mail in Bengali
ডাক ḍak
mail in Telugu
తపాలా tapālā
mail in Malayalam
മെയിൽ, തപാൽ, ടപ്പാൽ, തപ്പാൽ
mail in Kannada
ಅಂಚೆಯ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ, ಟಪಾಲು ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ, ಅಂಚೆ, ಕಾಗದಪತ್ರಗಳು
mail in Punjabi
ਮੇਲ, ਮੇਲ ਕਰੋ, ਡਾਕ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
mail in Gujarati
ડાક ḍāk
mail in Odia
ମେଲ୍ କରନ୍ତୁ, ମେଲ୍, ମେଲ
mail in Sinhala
තැපැල tæpæla
mail in Assamese
ডাক dak
mail in Nepali
मेल, मेल गर्नुहोस्, मेल गर्न
mail in Pashto
ډاګ ḍāg, پوسته posta
mail in Tagalog
koreo, sulatroniko
mail in Arabic
بَرِيد barīd, بريد
mail in Malay
pos
mail in Indonesian
pos, surel
mail in Thai
ไปรษณีย์ bprai-sà-nii
mail in Vietnamese
bưu điện, bưu chính
mail in Myanmar
စာပို့ capui., စာပို့ဆက်သွယ်ရေး capui.hcakswaire:, စာပို့စနစ် capui.ca.nac

Examples of mail in a sentence

  • The transfer by tender of some 1,300 mail bags was effected smartly, and the "Ocean Mails Special" train was ready at 9.19 a.m.1944 July and August, Charles E. Lee, “The "City of Truro"”, in Railway Magazine, page 202:
  • Where's the mail?" Gimbert knew the mail train was due, and he didn't want to endanger another train with his burning bomb wagon.2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 42:
  • If you mail an attachment from one mail client then it does not matter if the receiver uses a different mail client.2003, Chrissy, “Re: Send mail with attachment”, in microsoft.public.excel.programming (Usenet):
  • She was so excited by it, she sent all those emails, you remember I told you about it -' 'Yes, she mailed me from there too.'2002, Jessica Mann, The voice from the grave, page 189:

All 40 example sentences with mail

Synonyms of mail

Antonyms

Forms of mail

Noun
pluralmails
alternative formmaille
alternative formmaile
alternative formmaill
Verb
third-person singular presentmails
present participlemailing
past participlemailed
pastmailed

Past tense of mail: mailed

Plural of mail: mails

Origin of mail

From Middle English male, from Anglo-Norman male, Old French male (“bag, wallet”), from Frankish *malha (“bag”), from Proto-Germanic *malhō (“bag, pouch”), from Proto-Indo-European *molko- (“leather pouch”). Compare Dutch maal.

From Middle English mayle (“mail armor”), borrowed from Old French maille (“loop, stitch”), from Vulgar Latin *macla, from Latin macula (“blemish, mesh”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *smh₁-tleh₂, from *smeh₁- (“smear, rub”). Compare maillot.

From Middle English mal, male from Old English māl (“speech, contract, agreement”) from Old Norse mál (“agreement, speech, lawsuit”). Akin to Old English mǣl (“speech”). Related to Old English mǣlan (mell), maþelian (“to speak out, declare”). From *maþlą (“meeting-place”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to encounter, come”), if so, related to meet, and moot.

Words formed from mail

Phrases with mail

45 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with mail

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about mail

What does mail mean?
Mail means a bag or wallet.
What is mail in Hindi?
Mail in Hindi is डाक (ḍāk). See Mail meaning in Hindi.
How do you use mail in a sentence?
The transfer by tender of some 1,300 mail bags was effected smartly, and the "Ocean Mails Special" train was ready at 9.19 a.m.
What part of speech is mail?
Mail can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce mail?
Mail is pronounced /meɪl/ (UK).
What is the plural of mail?
The plural of mail is mails.

Words near mail in the dictionary

  1. maikas
  2. maiko
  3. maikong
  4. maikongs
  5. maikos
  6. mail
  7. mail art
  8. mail bag
  9. mail bags
  10. mail bomb
  11. mail bombed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mail (page history and authors); mail (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mail (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mail (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); mail (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mail (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ડાક (Gujarati) (page history and authors); mail (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mail (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-mail.ogg.

Cite this entry: “mail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.