email

/ˈiˌmeɪl/noun, verb

email is spelled E-M-A-I-L: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 48 times per million words in written English, the 2,113th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “e-mail vs email” about 260 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, email means “A system for sending messages and datas by means of a computer network, primarily the Internet, using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and the…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of email is emails.

How many letters and syllables are in email?

Letters	5: E-M-A-I-L
Syllables	2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing	48 times per million words; the 2,113th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search
Pairs people search	e-mail vs email

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is email?

Email appears 48 times per million words in written English, the 2,113th most frequent word form in the list.

email0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce email?

UK /ˈiːmeɪl/
US /ˈiˌmeɪl/

As a noun (“Enamel (“an opaque, glossy coating”)”): /ɛˈmeɪl/.

Email has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-email.wav, En-ca-email.ogg, En-us-e-mail.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with email

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

e-mail vs email260 G

Also written: e-mail (one word or two).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of email

emails plural, present, singular, he/she/it
e-mail
emailing participle, present
emailed participle, past
emayle

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does email mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

1
A system for sending messages and datas by means of a computer network, primarily the Internet, using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and the Internet Message Format.
He sent me his details via email.
2
The quantity of messages sent through an email system.
I am searching through my old email.
3
A message being sent through email.
He sent me an email last week to remind me about the meeting.
4
informalAn email address.
What’s your email?
5
obsoleterareEnamel (“an opaque, glossy coating”).

verb

1
To send an email or emails to.
She emailed me last week, asking about the status of the project.
2
To send (data) through email.
I’ll email you the link.
3
To send, or compose and then send, one or more emails.
Most teenagers seem to spend almost the whole day emailing and surfing the Web.