addressee
Americannoun
noun
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a person or organization to whom a letter, parcel, etc, is addressed
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a person who is addressed in conversation, a speech, a poem, etc
Etymology
Origin of addressee
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.
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.
The mysterious addressee was then sent seven letters, a bank card, a PIN, overdraft limit warnings and a warning that an outstanding debt could be referred to a credit reference agency.
From BBC • Nov. 24, 2025
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
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
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.
