courier
Americannoun
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a messenger, usually traveling in haste, bearing urgent news, important reports or packages, diplomatic messages, etc.
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any means of carrying news, messages, etc., regularly.
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the conveyance used by a courier, as an airplane or ship.
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Chiefly British. a tour guide for a travel agency.
noun
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a special messenger, esp one carrying diplomatic correspondence
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a person who makes arrangements for or accompanies a group of travellers on a journey or tour
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of courier
1350–1400; < Middle French cour ( r ) ier < Italian corriere, equivalent to corr ( ere ) to run (< Latin currere ) + -iere < Latin -ārius -ary; replacing Middle English corour < Anglo-French cor ( i ) our, Old French coreor < Late Latin curritor runner; see current, -tor
Explanation
A courier is a person you trust with delivering important messages or packages. Let your mail carrier deliver your credit card bill and the form letter from the “Save the Orchids” foundation, but trust a courier with your book contract or birth certificate. Couriers are in a hurry. Do they saunter up your driveway the way a mail carrier does? No! Couriers are clearly on important business; they’re jogging. The word comes from a Latin word, currere, meaning “to run.” Nowadays, you might see couriers on bicycles, however, weaving in and out of traffic to deliver your messages on time.
Vocabulary lists containing courier
Make a Run for It: Cur, Curs
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"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 14–18
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"Macbeth": Act 1 Scene 7
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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.
This was something she addressed in an interview with the Courier newspaper, external.
From BBC • Jun. 24, 2026
He has served as a news editor for the campus newspaper, the University Times, as well as a news editor for the Pasadena City College publication, the Courier.
From Los Angeles Times • May 26, 2026
In the archives of Armagh's Cultural Heritage Centre is a microfilm copy of the Tyrone Courier from March 24 1976.
From BBC • Mar. 14, 2026
Although it lacks the pedigree of the Armenian publication, the right-leaning Courier has shown it is well-immersed in today’s social media.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 11, 2026
The Florida Highway Patrol Drug Courier Profile cautioned troopers to be suspicious of “scrupulous obedience to traffic laws.”
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
