voice mail
15
3.2
- noun
- /ˈvɔɪs meɪl/
:
buzón de voz
- After missing the call, he listened to his voice mail to catch up on missed information.
Examples
-
Kathy had only one voice-mail message.
Fiction book (1999) -
I've got four voice mails from David Cartwright on my phone that I dare not listen to.
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-So did you get my voice mail?
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I just got your voice mail.
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Listen to the voice mail.
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Her voice mail is password protected.
Academic text (2011) -
Why are you leaving me a voice-mail?
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I've been trying her for an hour, and she's going straight to voice mail.
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Listen, by the way, there's messages on the voice mail regarding game night, which is obviously not gonna happen, so you might want to call people and tell them that it's canceled.
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Before I went home, I stopped at the roadside park, thought slow thoughts for a few minutes, then left a voice-mail message on Lorelei's cellular phone.
Fiction book (1999)
Synonyms
127
2.7
A system that lets callers leave voice messages when no one answers
105
2.7
A machine that picks up phone calls and records messages when people cannot talk
19
1.0
A short voice recording someone leaves on a phone when the person cannot answer
3
1.1
A spoken message left on a phone when the person cannot answer
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning (recorded/sent spoken messages) is directly and transparently composed from 'voice' (spoken sound) + 'mail' (messages), i.e. messages carried by voice. This is a common compounding pattern found across languages and in everyday technology vocabulary, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will very likely infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Voice mail comes from the idea of treating a recorded voice like a piece of mail you receive later. That's why it means a phone service where people can 'leave recorded messages' when you are not available and you can listen to them later.