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addressee

American  
[ad-re-see, uh-dre-see] / ˌæd rɛˈsi, ə drɛˈsi /

noun

  • addressees
    plural
  1. the person, company, or the like to whom a piece of mail is addressed.


addressee British  
/ ˌædrɛˈsiː /

noun

  1. a person or organization to whom a letter, parcel, etc, is addressed

  2. a person who is addressed in conversation, a speech, a poem, etc

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of addressee

An Americanism dating back to 1670–80; address + -ee


Explanation

The person who receives a letter in the mail is an addressee. If you're mailing a birthday gift, be sure to write the addressee's name and address clearly on the package! Whenever you send something to a particular address, you indicate an addressee. If you send your best friend a postcard from Hawaii, you'll include her name, street number, city, state and zip code, making her the addressee. Adding -ee to the end of a word is one way to indicate the recipient of an action; along with addressee, words like appointee and employee also use this suffix.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing addressee

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

In such a case, the apparent addressee is not the real addressee: the teacher is trying to pass on information indirectly to one or more other students.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2023

“As the postal service we are always happy when the addressee gets the message,” he said.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 19, 2022

"If it's a prison term, then it's a prison term. It absolutely doesn't scare me," said the letter, shown to Reuters on condition the addressee remained anonymous.

From Reuters ● Apr. 11, 2022

Me & hubby gone through them parcel not there but no details on card about addressee or sender.

From BBC ● Dec. 14, 2021

The Korean language has no fewer than six different levels of conversational address, depending on the relationship between the addressee and the addresser: formal deference, informal deference, blunt, familiar, intimate, and plain.

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell

Steps include blocking specific stations and IP addressees that consistently transmit false data.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 2, 2022

Lara Jean’s secret stash of unsent love letters to Josh and four other crushes winds up being mysteriously stamped and sent to the addressees.

From New York Times ● Aug. 30, 2018

They come from a tradition of “vinegar valentines,” which, as I wrote on the Vault in 2013, delivered a payload of burn to their unfortunate addressees.

From Slate ● Feb. 14, 2018

In some cases, the emails were part of long chains, on which Mrs. Clinton was copied at the beginning, but later left off the list of addressees.

From New York Times ● Sep. 23, 2016

His messengers carried letters bearing the seal, "Mohammed, Prophet of God," and urging the addressees to acknowledge his claims by embracing Islam.

From Mohammed, The Prophet of Islam by H. E. E. (Herbert Edward Elton) Hayes

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