pen pal

noun

: a friend made and kept through correspondence

Examples of pen pal in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But for them, that wasn’t so far from the spirit of the early days, when kids in different towns connected via zines and became long-distance pen pals. — Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 3 Oct. 2026

Maria Santa Poggi last had a pen pal to correspond handwritten letters with in the second grade and is currently open to finding a new one. — Maria Santa Poggi, New York Times, 3 Oct. 2026

Pen Pals Call me old-fashioned or avoidant or whatever, but I am obsessed with the idea of a pen pal. — Taylor Tomlinson, New Yorker, 15 Sep. 2026

The conversations used to be silly, targeted entirely around the holidays, but Tommy eventually became a pen pal and even a therapy chair, Hadley often sending notes off to the North Pole long after Santa’s work for the season was done. — Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 30 Aug. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1925, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for pen pal

• canal
• chorale
• corral
• locale
• morale
• royale
• artisanal
• bal
• dal
• gal
• mal
• sal

Kids Definition

pen pal

noun

: a friend made and kept through letter-writing