/meɪl/noun, verb
mail is spelled M-A-I-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 52 times per million words in written English, the 1,941st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “mail vs male” about 20 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, mail means “A bag or wallet” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of mail is mails.
How many letters and syllables are in mail?
| Letters | 4: M-A-I-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 52 times per million words; the 1,941st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is mail?
Mail appears 52 times per million words in written English, the 1,941st 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 mail?
- US /meɪl/
- /mel/
- /mɛj(ɪ)l/
Mail has one syllable (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: En-us-mail.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with mail
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: male (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with mail?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as mail from its last stressed vowel (/eɪl/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: lima, mali, alim.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of mail
- mails plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- mailing participle, present
- mailed participle, past
- maille
- maile
- maill
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does mail mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A bag or wallet.
- 2
A bag containing letters to be delivered by post.
- 3
The (physical) material conveyed by the postal service.
Meronym: mailpiece
- 4
USThe letters, parcels, etc. delivered to a particular address or person.
It should be in your mail today, unless the post office lost it!
- 5
datedA stagecoach, train or ship that delivers such post.
- 6
The postal service or system in general.
He decided to send his declaration by mail.
- 7
Electronic mail, e-mail: a computer network–based service for sending, storing, and forwarding electronic messages.
Yahoo Mail has been providing mail service since 1997.
- 8
Email messages conceived in bulk (as with the analogous sense of physical mail).
You've got mail [old audio clip announcing new email in the 1990s-2000s]
- 9
Armour consisting of metal rings linked together.
- 10
Armour consisting of small plates linked together.
- 11
A contrivance of interlinked rings, for rubbing off the loose hemp on lines and white cordage.
- 12
Any hard protective covering of an animal, as the scales and plates of reptiles, shell of a lobster, etc.
- 13
obsoleterareA spot on a bird's feather; by extension, a spotted feather.
- 14
An old French coin worth half a denier.
- 15
ScotlandA monetary payment or tribute.
- 16
ScotlandRent.
- 17
ScotlandTax.
verb
- 1
To send (a letter, parcel, etc.) through the mail.
- 2
To send by electronic mail.
Please mail me the spreadsheet by the end of the day.
- 3
To contact (a person) by electronic mail.
I need to mail my tutor about the deadline.
- 4
To arm with mail.
- 5
To pinion.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mail in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | poste, courrier , correspondance , courrier électronique , poster , cotte de mailles |
| German | Post , E-Mail , mailen, versenden, schicken, verschicken |
| Portuguese | correio , correspondência , correio eletrônico, e-mail , postar, enviar |
| Spanish | correo , correspondencia , correo electrónico, mail , enviar (por correo) , malla |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does mail come from?
From Middle English male, from Anglo-Norman male, Old French male (“bag, wallet”), from Frankish *malha (“bag”), from Proto-Germanic *malhō (“bag, pouch”), from Proto-Indo-European *molko- (“leather pouch”). Compare Dutch maal.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).