Word.ws English Dictionary

pen pal

pen pal noun: a friend with whom one communicates using letters, usually over a long distance.

Noun

pen pal (plural pen pals)

  1. A friend with whom one communicates using letters, usually over a long distance.
    Synonyms:
    penfriend

Verb

pen pal (third-person singular simple present pen pals, present participle pen palling, simple past and past participle pen palled)

  1. (informal, intransitive, transitive) To correspond with a pen pal.
    • Friendship provides shelter from the buffeting storms of life and the complexities of life situations. By penpalling, both can exchange thoughts, feelings, ideas, ideals and knowledge. Such an exchange promotes fresh insights and personal growth for both insider and those in the free world. Please...1986 December 7, Richard DuBose, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 21, page 14

pen pal meaning in Tamil, Arabic, Indonesian and Persian

pen pal in Tamil

முப்பால், பால்

pen pal in Arabic

friend with whom one communicates using letters
صَدِيق بِالْمُرَاسَلَة ṣadīq bi-l-murāsala

pen pal in Indonesian

friend with whom one communicates using letters
teman pena

pen pal in Persian

friend with whom one communicates using letters
دوستی نامه ای, دوست مکاتبهای dost-e mokâtebe-aye
More languagesFewer languages
pen pal in Thai
เพื่อนทางจดหมาย pʉ̂ʉan taang jòt-mǎai
pen pal in Vietnamese
bạn qua thư

Synonyms of pen pal

Forms of pen pal

Noun
pluralpen pals
Verb
third-person singular presentpen pals
present participlepen palling
past participlepen palled
pastpen palled

Questions about pen pal

What does pen pal mean?
Pen pal means a friend with whom one communicates using letters, usually over a long distance.
What is pen pal in Tamil?
Pen pal in Tamil is முப்பால், பால். See Pen pal meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is pen pal?
Pen pal can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of pen pal?
The plural of pen pal is pen pals.

Words near pen pal in the dictionary

  1. Pen Mill
  2. pen name
  3. pen names
  4. pen painting
  5. pen paintings
  6. pen pal
  7. pen palled
  8. pen palling
  9. pen pals
  10. pen pencil
  11. pen pencils

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pen pal (page history and authors); pen pal (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pen pal.wav.

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