email

American  

[ee-meyl] / 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.

---

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

Etymology

Origin of email

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

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

Honing her own leadership style: She adopted a weekly email practice after listening to Frank Slootman, the former chief executive of Snowflake and ServiceNow, discuss his at a conference.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

Every Sunday—she hasn’t missed one since the pandemic—Behrens Wu writes an email to Shippo’s remote staff.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

It says its free and confidential telephone helpline, email and web chat service helped more than 30,000 people last year.

From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026

“Bottom line up front,” he replied in an email reviewed by ProPublica.

From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026

The only luck I had was that the lady hadn’t given my parents her phone number or email address or anything.

From "Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer" by Kelly Jones

The Delaware Department of Insurance did not respond to emails for comment.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026

At least nine HSI agents in Cincinnati and Cleveland began to investigate, emails obtained by Campaign Legal Center and shared with ProPublica show.

From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026

Drawn from a trove of leaked data—browser history, emails, calendars and screen recordings pulled from the team’s own computers—our yearlong investigation offers a rare look at how North Korea’s undercover workers get hired.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

"I need to check my emails and WhatsApp every other minute, because I receive messages from my clients... if I don't answer, I can lose the offer," he said.

From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026

Maybe that's the whole point of these emails.

From "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" by Becky Albertalli

He researched online and emailed the company posing as an investor to learn more about the event, Mangione told the court.

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

As CoreWeave confirmed demand for graphics processing units is still strong, Lumentum showed how that is driving a need for infrastructure to power and run those chips, he said in emailed comments.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026

I scroll through the portraits he’d emailed me: two women laughing, a family smiling, and my personal favorite, a pop-artish rendering of Gigi Hadid.

From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026

Cedars-Sinai spokeswoman Sally Stewart added in an emailed statement that “changing the allocation formula risks undermining the system that Measure B was designed to protect and sustain.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026

That was what I emailed back, even though I didn’t read it.

From "Liar, Liar" by Gary Paulsen

"Because we had to keep emailing after that, it really piqued our interest."

From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026

That’s a passive-aggressive approach that looks like this: sending the boss updates every 30 minutes, asking questions you already know the answer to and emailing summaries of every minor meeting or interaction.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026

Once you’ve filled out your W-4 and feigned attentiveness during HR trainings, your new boss will start emailing you with tasks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026

At the journal I work for, it’s not uncommon to spend a month emailing a dozen or more people asking for a review.

From Slate ● May 3, 2026

They were “smart” because they could do so many things beyond calling, like texting, emailing, surfing the Internet, playing games.

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