mail

1 of 4

noun (1)

ˈmāl 

often attributive

1

a

: material (such as letters and packages) sent or carried in a postal system

sorting through the mail

also : similar material distributed within an organization

interoffice mail

b

: email sense 2a

c

: a conveyance that transports mail

2

: a nation's postal system

a letter sent through the mail

—often plural

packages sent through the mails

3

chiefly Scotland : bag, wallet

mail

2 of 4

verb

mailed; mailing; mails

transitive verb

: to send by mail : post entry 4

mailability

ˌmā-lə-ˈbi-lə-tē 

noun

mailable

ˈmā-lə-bəl 

adjective

mail

3 of 4

noun (2)

1

: armor made of metal links or sometimes plates

2

: a hard enclosing covering of an animal (such as a tortoise)

mailed

ˈmāld 

adjective

mail

4 of 4

noun (3)

chiefly Scotland

: payment, rent

Synonyms of mail

Noun (1)

• correspondence
• letter
• message
• package
• card
• post

Verb

• post
• address

Examples of mail in a Sentence

Noun (1)

began receiving lots of mail after he became known as a frequent donor to charities

Verb

if you don't mail that letter soon, it's going to arrive late

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

A Little Rock police incident report lists Shelton as a suspect in the theft of mail from the post office at 7401 Colonel Glenn Road, where a blue postal collection box had been broken into early Friday. — Arkansas Online, 26 Aug. 2026

Roughly 30% of the ballots cast in the 2024 general election were submitted by mail, and Democrats have increasingly pursued vote-by-mail strategies, in contrast with Republicans. — Rick Pearson, Chicago Tribune, 25 Aug. 2026

Verb

That includes bringing in physical and cybersecurity assistance for county clerks, mailing ballots earlier to minimize problems from delays, and creating a provision to allow the governor to declare an emergency in case of interference. — Nick Coltrain, Denver Post, 22 Aug. 2026

Getty Images Fraudsters are mailing physical letters to crypto holders, impersonating the IRS and directing recipients to a fake government website. — Shehan Chandrasekera, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

Middle English male "bag, pouch, pack," borrowed from Anglo-French (also continental Old French, "sack, traveler's trunk"), going back to Old Low Franconian *malha, going back to Germanic *malhō(n)- (whence also Old Saxon malha* "bag, haversack," Middle Dutch male "bag, pouch," Old High German malaha) and *malha- (whence Old Icelandic malr "knapsack"), of uncertain origin

Note: Senses 1-2 are all based on the use of a sack for letters conveyed by a postal system. The origin of this meaning is not entirely clear. In Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, the earliest date for this sense is 1654, while the Oxford etymology dates the sense to 1569 in French, without citing a source, as appears to be Oxford's customary editorial practice. Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuch assigns a 1569 date to the sense "valise (des courriers pour les lettres)", citing "Larousse - 1873" (presumably the source of Oxford's date). Volume 10 of Larousse's Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle, published in 1873, does have the sense "valise de courrier servant à serrer les depêches" ("courier's case for closing in dispatches"), but no date is assigned. The meaning is absent from Huguet's Dictionnaire de la langue française de la seizieme siècle. The literal sense "case, traveler's bag" has been lost in English, but continued in Scots use into the twentieth century. As pointed out by Oxford, the spelling with ai is not etymological. — The Germanic etymon has been compared with Greek molgós "leather flask," though stress and the velar consonant differ. Both may represent a Wanderwort, probably not unusual for a word of this sense—compare the etymology of sack entry 1.

Verb

derivative of mail entry 1

Noun (2)

Middle English maile, maylle "metal link forming part of chain armor," borrowed from Anglo-French, "spot, blemish, marking on a bird, opacity in the cornea, link in chain armor" (also continental Old French), going back to Latin macula "stain, spot, blemish, one of the interstices of a net" — more at macula

Note: The argument put forward by François Buttin in Du costume militaire au Moyen Âge et pendant la Renaissance (Memorias de la Real Academia de Buenas Letras de Barcelona, vol. 12, 1971, pp. 21-49), that maille both in the sense "chain mail" and "coin of low value" are derived from the verb maill(i)er "to strike with a hammer (mail)," is not very convincing. If maille actually does refer to pieces of plate armor, as Buttin believed, the sense seems more likely an extension of the chain armor sense. The diverse senses of the medieval French word cannot be plausibly explained if "something hammered" is taken as the core meaning.

Noun (3)

early Scots & northern Middle English male "payment, rent," going back to late Old English māl "lawsuit, case, agreement," borrowed from an Old Norse antecedent of Old Icelandic mál "speech, lawsuit, indictment, agreement," going back to Germanic *maþla- "speech, assembly" (whence also Old English mæþel "speech, meeting, assembly," Old Saxon mahal "speech, judgment, law court," Old High German, "court, assembly, treaty," Gothic maþl* translating Greek agorá agora entry 1), perhaps derivative with the instrument suffix *-tlo- from the base of Old English mōtan "to be allowed to" — more at must entry 1

Note: The midland and southern Middle English form mol with the usual outcome of Old English ā is attested in a few texts; in the compound molland "land for which rent was paid in place of feudal service" it survived into the early seventeenth century.

First Known Use

Noun (1)

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Verb

1827, in the meaning defined above

Noun (2)

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun (3)

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing mail

• by return mail
• certified mail
• chain mail
• coat of mail
• direct mail
• electronic mail
• e-mail
• fan mail
• hate mail
• Irish mail
• junk e-mail
• junk mail
• lost in the mail
• mail carrier
• mail drop
• mail order
• mail-order catalog
• mail room
• registered mail
• snail mail
• surface mail
• voice mail

Rhymes for mail

• ail
• ale
• bail
• baile
• dail
• fail
• flail
• frail
• gael
• gail
• grail
• hail

Kids Definition

mail

1 of 3 noun

ˈmā(ə)l 

1

: letters or parcels sent from one person to another especially through the post office

2

: something that comes in the mail and especially in a single delivery

3

: a vehicle (as a train, truck, or boat) that carries mail

4

: the system used in the public sending and delivery of letters and parcels

do business by mail

5

: email sense 2

mail

2 of 3 verb

: to send by mail : post

mailable

ˈmā-lə-bəl

adjective

mailer noun

mail

3 of 3 noun

: armor made of small metal links or sometimes plates

a coat of mail

mailed

ˈmā(ə)ld

adjective

Etymology

Noun

Middle English male "a wallet or traveling bag," from early French male (same meaning); of Germanic origin

Noun

Middle English maille "metal plates used on armor," from early French maille (same meaning), derived from Latin macula "spot, mesh of a net"