dead-letter office

dead letter

D d

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA

Definitions of dead-letter office words

noun dead-letter office an office where undeliverable letters were taken for storage 3
noun dead-letter office the postal department to which dead letters are sent to be opened and returned to the sender, if possible, or destroyed 3
noun dead-letter office a law, ordinance, etc., that has lost its force but has not been formally repealed or abolished. 1
noun dead-letter office a letter that cannot reach the addressee or be returned to the sender, usually because of incorrect address, and that is sent to and handled in a special division or department (dead-letter office) of a general post office. 1

See all 4 definitions of dead-letter office

Information block about the term

Origin of dead-letter office

First appearance:

before 1570

One of the 33% oldest English words

First recorded in 1570-80

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Dead-letter office

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of Dead-letter office

dead-letter office popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 42% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.

According to our data about 64% of words is more used. This is a rare but used term. It occurs in the pages of specialized literature and in the speech of educated people.

Matching words

Was this page helpful?

Yes No

Thank you for your feedback! Tell your friends about this page

Tell us why?