Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈiËmeɪl/
Alternative forms
Origin
of electronic mail
Full definition of e-mail
Noun
- (uncountable) A system for transferring messages from one computer to another, usually via a network.He sent me his details via e-mail.The advent of e-mail has simultaneously brought our society closer together and farther apart.
- (countable, see Usage notes below) A message sent via an e-mail system.He sent me an e-mail last week to that effect.I am searching through my old e-mails.
- (uncountable, see Usage notes below) A quantity of e-mail messages.I am searching through my old e-mail.My inbox used to only allow 50 MB of e-mail at a time until last year, when they upgraded it to 2 GBs!
- (informal) An e-mail address.What's your e-mail?
Usage notes
The spellings e-mail and email are both in common use. The form email is now more widespread, probably due to one less character and the tendency to drop hyphens, making it easier to write or type, and this form is becoming a standardized usage for most businesses and Internet users. Those who follow strict orthographic rules may consider the hyphenated form to be proper; however, as a recently coined word, the issue remains an unsettled matter at this point.
As a contraction of electronic mail, some feel that e-mail should follow the same pluralization rules and be uncountable, prohibiting the forms e-mails and an e-mail. Others feel that it is not necessary for e-mail to maintain grammatical similarity to mail, and prefer to pluralize the term as a countable noun. This issue is hotly debated, but it is seldom considered incorrect to use the uncountable form.
Derived terms
Verb
- (transitive) To send an e-mail or e-mails to.She e-mailed me last week, asking about the status of the project.
- (intransitive) To send, or compose and send, an e-mail or e-mails.Most teenagers spend twenty-six hours a day e-mailing and surfing the Web.
- (transitive, may take two objects) To send via e-mail.I'll e-mail you the link.He e-mailed the file out to everyone.