What does mailbox mean?
Word: Mailbox
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Mailbox means a box where letters are posted, or one at a home where letters are delivered. It is the North American word: British English says postbox for the box in the street and letterbox for the one at a home.
Synonyms: letterbox, postbox
Sounds like: male (a boy or man, or a he-animal; it sounds the same as mail.)
How do you spell mailbox?
Syllables: mail - box
Tricky part: The first part is mail, with ai, meaning letters and parcels. Male, which sounds the same, means a boy or man.
Watch out for: malebox, melbox, maelbox
Memory tip: The vowel pair comes in the same order as in the word air: a first, then i.
Mailbox in a sentence
Example 1: I dropped my letter to Nani in the red mailbox.
Example 2: Check the mailbox for the school magazine.
Example 3: Our building has a row of small mailboxes near the lift.
Fun Fact
Mailbox is the American word. In Britain and India the box on the street is a postbox; Britain's first pillar boxes, set up in the 1850s, were painted green and only turned red in the 1870s.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Makeup
Choose the correctly spelt compound word:
a) mailboks
b) mailbox
c) mailbax
d) mailbocks
Show answer
b) mailbox. The second half is box, ending in a single x.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
olibmax
a) mailbxo
b) maiblox
c) mailbox
d) mailobx
Show answer
c) mailbox. The x belongs at the very end, and the word for letters and parcels comes first.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
maillbox
a) l
b) b
c) m
d) x
Show answer
a) l. Mail, the letters you post, ends in one l: m-a-i-l.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) letterbox
b) mailbox
c) parsel
d) postcard
Show answer
c) parsel. Parcel has a c; letterbox, postcard and mailbox are spelt right.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Who empties the postbox and takes the letters away?
a) a postman
b) a milkman
c) a shopkeeper
d) a bank clerk
Show answer
a) a postman
2. On a computer, your mailbox is where you find your ____.
a) photos
b) games
c) songs
d) emails
Show answer
d) emails
