pen pal

American  

noun

• pen pals
  plural

1. a person with whom one keeps up an exchange of letters, usually someone so far away that a personal meeting is unlikely.

   My niece in Texas has a pen pal in France.

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pen pal British  

noun

1. Also called: pen friend. a person with whom one regularly exchanges letters, often a person in another country whom one has not met

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• pen pals
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of pen pal

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pen pal

"My Brownie leader came in with a cigar box full of names and asked if anyone would like a pen pal from Scotland," she said.

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026

Directed by Shunji Iwai, “Love Letter” starred Nakayama as both a woman mourning her late fiancé and her unexpected pen pal.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 6, 2024

Sigrid shared similar experiences, offering that “your pen pal will change your perspective on life, and you will gain as much as they do from the correspondence.”

From Slate ● Sep. 12, 2023

In the song “I Don’t Know His Name,” Amalia concludes that her anonymous pen pal — even though he is, in fact, a co-worker she hates — must be an extremely kind and cultured man:

From New York Times ● Jun. 23, 2023

I look at my pen pal assignment: Lena, who sits in the front row and cracks her knuckles.

From "Merci Suárez Changes Gears" by Meg Medina

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Related Words

• letter writer

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