mailbox

noun

mail·​box ˈmāl-ˌbäks 

1

: a box at or near a dwelling for the occupant's mail

2

: a public box for deposit of outgoing mail

3

: a computer file in which email is collected

Examples of mailbox in a Sentence

On the way to work, I dropped my letters in the corner mailbox.

She checked her mailbox daily, hoping for a letter from her son.

Recent Examples on the Web

The white mailbox out front advises that deliveries should go to the house next door. —Idaho Statesman, 28 Apr. 2026

The mailbox, which surprisingly pops up from a landscape of sugar-white sand and sea oats swaying in the wind, creates a scene straight from a movie. —Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 27 Apr. 2026

The Democratic former state controller, lagging in funds and stuck at 2% in the polls, drops out of the governor’s race two weeks before ballots begin arriving in voters’ mailboxes. —Bay Area News Group, Mercury News, 26 Apr. 2026

Serhiy, my photographer and fixer, stopped to study a bank of mailboxes in the stairwell. —Lizzie Johnson, New Yorker, 25 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1868, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for mailbox

• botox
• checkbox
• comox
• cornstalks
• cowpox
• crosswalks
• deadlocks
• detox
• feedstocks
• firebox
• gearbox
• hemlocks

Kids Definition

mailbox

noun

mail·​box ˈmā(ə)l-ˌbäks 

1

: a public box in which to place outgoing mail

2

: a private box (as on a house) for the delivery of incoming mail

3

: a computer file in which email is collected