fax
Americannoun
-
faxes
plural
adjective
verb (used with object)
-
faxes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
faxed,
past participle, past
-
faxing
present participle
noun
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Also: fax machine. short for facsimile machine
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short for facsimile transmission
-
a message or document sent by fax
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
faxsimple
-
faxessimple
-
have faxedperfect
-
has faxedperfect
-
am faxingprogressive
-
are faxingprogressive
-
is faxingprogressive
-
have been faxingperfect progressive
-
has been faxingperfect progressive
Past
-
faxedsimple
-
had faxedperfect
-
was faxingprogressive
-
were faxingprogressive
-
had been faxingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of fax
By shortening and respelling
Explanation
A fax is a machine that sends a scanned paper copy using a telephone line, and it's also what you call the document itself. When you send someone a fax, their fax machine prints it out for them. You might need to send a fax when you're signing an important document long distance: for example, a lease or loan agreement might need to be signed, scanned, and sent as a fax. The word is a verb, too: "I'll fax that to you right away." It's short for facsimile, "exact copy," from the Latin root fac simile, "make similar." The growth of the Internet means that faxes aren't used as often as they once were.
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:
I’m 72 years of age, and I was there when the fax was born, the email, and everything seemed so scary, but I believe in humanity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Hamawy had helped Abdel-Rahman translate a fax from Egypt and had been to the cleric’s apartment.
From Slate ● Jul. 14, 2026
Later, he mounted exhibitions with art created by photocopier and fax machine, carefully building vast pictures from single sheets of paper.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
They have to rely on patients to recount their medical histories or wait hours or even days for another clinician to send a DVD, a fax — or a photocopy.
From MarketWatch ● May 4, 2026
For the next three years, businesses slowly and steadily bought more and more faxes, until, in 1987, enough people had faxes that it made sense for everyone to get a fax.
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
Back in December 2018, Conservative health secretary Matt Hancock banned the NHS from buying new faxes and ordered a complete phase-out by April 2020.
From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2026
Physicians have been getting emails and faxes saying, “‘We’ve got Botox for cheaper, we’ve got filler for cheaper’ — and it’s all these unregulated places that don’t have any FDA oversight,” Johnson said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2024
Meanwhile, older attorneys are finding their skills in high demand, as they teach younger attorneys to use faxes and file with paper, said Karla Whitaker, interim executive director of the Kansas Bar Association.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 25, 2023
They are continuing their work, communicating with the senator through the phone, memos and faxes.
From New York Times ● May 28, 2023
For my part, I wrote few postcards or faxes to anybody.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
It made a fortune in international long-distance calls in the 1980s as businesses faxed documents, bypassing FedEx.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 11, 2026
The email, the outlet said, was faxed from a North American toll-free number that also appeared in court documents.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2024
In a faxed statement, China’s Foreign Ministry defended China’s handling of research into the origins, saying the country is open and transparent, shared data and research, and “made the greatest contribution to global origins research.”
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 21, 2024
The police did not respond to a faxed request to comment on the allegations made by the campaign spokesperson.
From Reuters ● Sep. 22, 2023
Within ten minutes, the clerk had faxed over a birth certificate request form with no questions asked.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
Footballers' agents used faxing to secure the transfer of players, although the method has been retired by the Premier League.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2022
As Bush’s lawyers began faxing the decision to each other, Karl Rove, Bush’s chief campaign adviser, was in a McLean, Va., hotel room watching the coverage.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 4, 2020
Borat is faxing back and forth with his premier.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 24, 2020
Since then, he has twice provided Washington’s Employment Security Department proof of his identity — by faxing and uploading copies of his Social Security and identification cards.
From New York Times ● Jul. 2, 2020
With the legal force of the Cache County Attorney’s Office, Rindlisbacher had been faxing Verizon in late January and early February.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
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.
