email

American  

[ee-mayl] / ˈiˌmeɪl /

Or e-mail

noun

• emails
  plural

1. 

   a system for sending messages to one or more recipients via telecommunications links between computers using dedicated software or a web-based service.

   Communication by email is almost instantaneous.

2. a message sent by email.

   Send me an email about that idea, and I'll get back to you.

3. an address at which a person can receive email messages.

   He’s got my phone number and email in case he needs to contact me.

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verb (used with object)

• emails,
  present (3rd person singular)
• emailed,
  past participle,  past
• emailing
  present participle

1. to send (a message or file) to (a person or organization) by email: I emailed the company but haven’t heard back yet.

   He emailed his response to the invitation.

   I emailed the company but haven’t heard back yet.

verb (used without object)

• emails,
  present (3rd person singular)
• emailed,
  past participle,  past
• emailing
  present participle

1. to send an email; communicate by email or exchange emails: We emailed back and forth for three weeks before actually meeting.

   She emailed to say she’ll be on vacation next week.

   We emailed back and forth for three weeks before actually meeting.

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• emails
  plural

Participles

• emailing
  present
• emailed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• email
  simple
• emails
  simple
• have emailed
  perfect
• has emailed
  perfect
• am emailing
  progressive
• are emailing
  progressive
• is emailing
  progressive
• have been emailing
  perfect progressive
• has been emailing
  perfect progressive

Past

• emailed
  simple
• had emailed
  perfect
• was emailing
  progressive
• were emailing
  progressive
• had been emailing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will email
  simple
• will have emailed
  perfect
• will be emailing
  progressive
• will have been emailing
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of email

First recorded in 1975–80; e(lectronic) + mail ¹

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Explanation

Email is an electronic message that's sent from one computer to another. When you receive good news in an email, you can forward the message to your friends and family. Most email these days uses the Internet for connecting the sender and recipient. Unlike some other kinds of messaging, when you send an email to a friend, she doesn't have to be online at the same time to get your message. The next time she checks her email account, your email will be waiting for her. Email, sometimes spelled e-mail, is short for electronic mail, and was coined in the early 1980s.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

email emails emailed emailing

Obermeyer has also created a website where people interested in learning about their own risk can provide basic personal information and an email address.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 15, 2026

“As the President has said, he’s willing to work with anyone to continue delivering victories for hardworking Americans,” spokesperson Lauren Bis said in an email.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2026

I certainly wasn’t thinking about how our text might be censored by an authoritarian government halfway across the world, but that was the news that email came bearing.

From Slate ● Nov. 14, 2026

In the U.S., city governments across the country lost email, including Tampa, Fla.; Louisville, Ky.; and the County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2026

I email Mom and tell her to please come pick us up.

From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko

Michelson noticed he wasn’t getting any new emails in his inbox in the early afternoon on Thursday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2026

We fell in love through emails and phone calls.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2026

Belfast City Council said it is experiencing issues "receiving and responding" to emails.

From BBC ● Nov. 13, 2026

As Wall Street fixated on the evolving scandal surrounding former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, millions of workers across the corporate world were struggling to simply send emails.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 13, 2026

After training all day, I would come home and review sales for the day and respond to customer emails.

From "Proud" by Ibtihaj Muhammad

“That ecosystem doesn’t disappear with him,” he said in emailed commentary.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 15, 2026

People took part in the research after being emailed via Rightmove's database, so the survey was self-selecting.

From BBC ● Nov. 11, 2026

After initially declining to comment on the talks, Meieran later emailed a statement.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026

If you emailed David, however, you’d have to walk across the office to nag him into looking at it.

From Slate ● Nov. 6, 2026

Schmidt had emailed her to tell her that due to an emergency faculty meeting, she couldn’t do her 3:30 session.

From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin

The next thing I knew, we were emailing about our childhoods in Arizona, our passions for travel, art and music, our career paths, our life goals and our values.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026

After months of emailing and already deeply in love, I knew I had to tell Matt that I’d never move back to New York City.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026

They ran a field experiment, emailing Chinese firms while posing as both local and foreign investors asking for information.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026

I thought of one 64-year-old woman named Johna, with whom I had been emailing.

From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026

He wondered how police would be able to prove what someone was doing on their phone—texting, talking, emailing, what?—without being intrusive into the motorist’s personal business.

From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel

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