Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🏠 A house mailbox 📬 A mail compartment 📮 A street mailbox
letter box

letter box

1.8
A numbered box at a post office that people rent to receive mail
  • noun
  • /ˈlɛtər bɑks/
  • UK
translation icon : apartado de correos
  • You can rent a letter box if you need a secure place to receive mail.

Examples

  • He checked his letter box at the post office every morning before work.

  • You can rent a letter box if you need a secure place to receive mail.

  • The package was waiting for her in her letter box last Friday.

  • I checked my letter box for any mail.

  • The postman delivered a package to my letter box.

  • He checked his letter box at the post office every morning before work.

  • The package was waiting for her in her letter box last Friday.

Synonyms

PO Box
vsletter box
7 3.4

A numbered box at a post office where you receive and collect your mail

emphasizes letters and packages placed for collection by the assigned person
Post-Office box
vsletter box
7 3.1

A numbered box at a post office where you collect your mail

includes both letters and packages placed there for the assigned person's collection
POB
vsletter box
  • US
3.5

A numbered box at a post office where you receive mail

is the full phrase rather than the shortened form
call box
vsletter box
  • Archaic
6.1

A numbered box in a post office where a person collects their mail

differs by explicitly including packages as well as letters in its scope

How Private

lockbox
  • US
14 5.8
letter box
  • UK
1.8
letterbox
  • UK
2 1.5

Surface Forms

letter box singular
letter boxes plural

Morphology

letter + box

The meaning 'a box for delivered letters' is directly and transparently derived from 'letter' (a posted message) + 'box' (a container), so a learner who knows both words can infer this without prior exposure. This compound follows common noun+noun composition found across languages (e.g., mailbox/letterbox), making it immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Letter box The compound letter box comes from the simple image of a letter put into a small numbered box at the post office that a person rents. People pictured their mail waiting safely in that box until they picked it up, so it means 'a private compartment for your mail'.