Definitions for snail mail
snail mail

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. snail mailnoun

   any mail that is physically delivered by the postal service

   "email is much faster than snail mail"

WiktionaryRate this definition:1.0 / 1 vote

1. snail mailnoun

   Postal mail, especially as compared to email

2. Etymology: A retronym emphasizing postal mail's slowness compared to email.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. snail mail

   Snail mail refers to the traditional method of sending physical letters, documents, or packages via a postal service, as opposed to digital communications like email. It is often termed as such due to its slower speed in comparison to its digital counterparts.

WikidataRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. Snail mail

   Snail mail or smail —named after the snail with its slow speed—refers to letters and missives carried by conventional postal delivery services. The phrase refers to the lag-time between dispatch of a letter and its receipt, versus the virtually instantaneous dispatch and delivery of its electronic equivalent, e-mail. It is also known, more neutrally, as paper mail, postal mail, land mail, or simply mail or post. An earlier term of the same type is surface mail, coined retrospectively after the development of airmail. This happened not too long ago, between the 1970s to 1990s. Snail mail is also a term used in reference to penpalling. Snail mail penpals are those penpals that communicate with one another through the postal system, rather than on the internet which has become the more common medium. Some online groups also use paper mail through regular gift or craft hot topics. In some countries, services are available to print and deliver emails to those unable to receive email, like people with no computers or internet access. Similar terminology was used in the 1840s to contrast the already-operating postal mail with the new telegraph. The Philadelphia North American stated: "The markets will no longer be dependent upon snail paced mails".

The New Hacker's DictionaryRate this definition:2.0 / 1 vote

1. snail mail

   Paper mail, as opposed to electronic. Sometimes written as the single word ‘SnailMail’. One's postal address is, correspondingly, a snail address. Derives from earlier coinage ‘USnail’ (from ‘U.S. Mail’), for which there have even been parody posters and stamps made. Also (less commonly) called P-mail, from ‘paper mail’ or ‘physical mail’. Oppose email.(Note: Actual garden snails progress at about 10 meters per hour, which is about 25-50 times slower than the U.K.'s Royal Mail; comparable measurements for other countries have not yet been made. More biologically apt terms might be “sloth-mail” at 250 m/hr or “tortoise-mail” at 270 m/hr. See http://www.newscientist.com/lastword/answers/789communication.jsp?tp=communication for details.)

Matched Categories

1. • Mail

How to pronounce snail mail?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say snail mail in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of snail mail in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of snail mail in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of snail mail in a Sentence

1. European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager:

   Some tool boxes are if not empty then at least somewhat outdated because we find that there are agencies which are not allowed to collect digital evidence. They cannot search the cloud for evidence of collusion or abuse of dominant position, there is no reason to believe that cartelists should use only snail mail or paper memos, at least I find that hypothesis very hard to sustain. So what we see is that there is a need for alignment when it comes to having a full, modern tool box.

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=snail mail
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Snail_Mail
3. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
4. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=snail mail
5. ^ The New Hacker's Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3008/3008-h/3008-h.htm#SnailMail