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Glite Dictionary
United States Post Office

United States Post Office

1 2.0
A government service that delivers letters and packages across the United States
  • proper noun
  • Formal
translation icon : Servicio Postal de los Estados Unidos
  • We have the utmost respect for the members of the United States Post Office Department.

Examples

  • The Challenge: The United States Post Office has introduced a new direct mail service for businesses.

    Blog text (32)

  • In this sense, then, a United States Post Office was widely accepted and desired, despite the costs of implementation.

    Academic text (2010)

  • Sissy gets out of a large eighteen-wheeler truck and walks into a United States Post Office.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • The United States Post Office announced that it will be expanding its delivery services to rural areas.

  • Every Saturday, I visit the United States Post Office to send letters and packages.

  • The United States Post Office plays a vital role in ensuring mail reaches people across the entire country.

Synonyms

Post Office
vsUnited States Post Office
24 1.0

A public place where people send and pick up letters and parcels

is the federal agency described with the formal organizational label
PO
vsUnited States Post Office
  • US
19 1.8

A building where people send and receive mail

is the full agency name used instead of the short form
USPS
vsUnited States Post Office
10 3.4

A government service that handles mail and deliveries in the United States

is the same agency but shown with the longer formal name
postal service
vsUnited States Post Office
10 1.4

A system that sends and delivers letters and packages

refers to the agency that runs or manages that system nationally
United States Postal Service
vsUnited States Post Office
  • Formal
3 2.4

A government agency that delivers letters and packages across the United States

is the same agency but often shortened in casual use
US Postal Service
vsUnited States Post Office
3 2.3

A government service that collects, sorts, and delivers mail across the United States

is the national agency but uses a slightly different official label
mail service
vsUnited States Post Office
1 1.0

An official system that sends letters and packages between places, often run by the government

points to the agency that operates that system rather than the system itself
US Post Office
vsUnited States Post Office
1 2.0

A government service that delivers letters and packages across the United States

is the same agency but expressed with an alternate common term

Surface Forms

United States Post Office main

Morphology

united + state + post + office

The meaning is directly and transparently derived from the constituents: 'United States' denotes the country and 'post office' denotes the agency/place that handles mail, so together they refer to the U.S. postal service/place. This is a standard, compositional naming pattern found cross-linguistically and requires no idiomatic knowledge, so a B1 learner who knows the words would understand it.

Etymology

United States Post Office gets its name from old mail posts, fixed places where messengers stopped, and from an office that managed those stops. When the U.S. government created one national service to send and receive letters across the country, the name came to mean the government service that 'delivers mail'.