greenmail
noun, verb
greenmail is spelled G-R-E-E-N-M-A-I-L: 9 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 49 million words in written English, the 217,360th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, greenmail means “The profiting from an attempted hostile takeover by forcing the target company to buy back the hostile bidder's shares at an inflated price” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of greenmail is greenmails.
How many letters and syllables are in greenmail?
| Letters | 9: G-R-E-E-N-M-A-I-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 49 million words; the 217,360th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is greenmail?
Greenmail appears about once in every 49 million words in written English, the 217,360th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce greenmail?
- US
Greenmail 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)-Wodencafe-greenmail.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of greenmail
- greenmails plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- greenmailing participle, present
- greenmailed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does greenmail mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The profiting from an attempted hostile takeover by forcing the target company to buy back the hostile bidder's shares at an inflated price.
verb
- 1
To profit from an attempted hostile takeover by forcing the target company to buy back the hostile bidder's shares at an inflated price.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does greenmail come from?
Blend of greenback + blackmail.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).