mail — noun
1. letters, parcels, and other items that people send to each other, or the public
letters, parcels, and other items that people send to each other, or the public system that collects and delivers them.
The mail usually arrives at our office before ten o'clock in the morning.
Shanti forgot to check her mail while she was away on holiday for two weeks.
collocation: check the mail
Minho sent the package by mail instead of using an express courier service.
There was a pile of mail on the kitchen table when I got home.
Every morning the mail carrier brings letters and small parcels to our street.
- post
preferred term in British English for letters and packages sent through the postal system
- correspondence
more formal; refers specifically to written messages, not parcels
用法筆記
Mail is an uncountable noun in this sense. Do not say 'a mail' for a single item — use 'a letter', 'a package', or 'a piece of mail' instead.
常見錯誤
2. messages sent and received electronically through a computer or phone network.
messages sent and received electronically through a computer or phone network.
Felipe checks his work mail on the computer before starting his shift.
Élise sent a short mail with all the details about the meeting tomorrow.
collocation: send a mail
I received an automatic mail confirming my hotel booking for next month.
Could you forward that mail from the IT team to Olivia?
用法筆記
Frequently used in workplace and computing contexts. The countable form 'a mail' (meaning an email message) is widely accepted in informal usage, though some style guides prefer 'an email' for electronic messages and reserve 'mail' for physical post.
常見錯誤
3. a type of body protection once used by warriors, created by joining many tiny me
a type of body protection once used by warriors, created by joining many tiny metal loops into one flexible sheet.
The knight wore a heavy mail coat under his armour for extra protection.
compound noun: mail coat
At the museum we saw an exhibition of chain mail from the medieval period.
Making chain mail required thousands of tiny metal rings linked by hand.
The museum guide explained how blacksmiths made mail by linking rings one at a time.
Sirin dressed in a full suit of mail for the historical battle reenactment.
- chain mail
the more common modern term for this type of armour
- chainmail
alternative spelling, written as one word
用法筆記
Usually appears as 'chain mail' in modern English. When used alone, it is uncountable — do not say 'a mail' for a piece of armour. Distinguish from the mail/email senses (noun/1 and noun/2), which come from a different historical root.
4. a word used in the names of some British newspapers, reflecting their historical
a word used in the names of some British newspapers, reflecting their historical connection to the postal service.
The Daily Mail is one of the most widely read newspapers in the United Kingdom.
Christopher writes a weekly column for the local newspaper called the Town Mail.
proper noun: part of newspaper title
The editor of the Evening Mail announced new sections for the weekend edition.
My grandfather has delivered copies of the Daily Mail for over twenty years.
用法筆記
Always appears as part of a proper noun and is capitalised. Learners do not need to actively produce this sense, but should recognise it when encountering newspapers such as the Daily Mail or the Glasgow Mail.
mail — verb
1. to dispatch a document, parcel, or computer message to a recipient by post or ov
to dispatch a document, parcel, or computer message to a recipient by post or over a computer network.
Yael mailed the signed contract to the company headquarters yesterday.
mail + object + to + recipient
Karim mailed his university application forms just before the deadline.
Could you mail me a copy of the sales report by Friday?
The company mailed out letters to all its customers last week.
We mailed the wedding invitations six weeks before the big day.
- receive
the opposite action — getting mail rather than sending it
文法句型
mail + object + to + recipient
mail + object
mail + indirect object + direct object
用法筆記
This verb works for both physical post and electronic messages — the meaning is disambiguated by context. It is a regular verb (mail, mailed, mailed). In British English, 'post' is more common than 'mail' for physical sending.