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Glite Dictionary
post-office box number

post-office box number

1 2.1
A number used to receive mail at a post office box
  • noun
  • /ˈpoʊstˌɔfɪs bɑks ˈnʌmbər/
translation icon : número de apartado postal
  • She rented a post-office box number at the local post office to keep her letters safe.

Examples

  • My post-office box number is 1234, so I can receive my mail there.

  • There was a post office box number in the upper left-hand corner, a place in Toronto, Canada, and a Canadian maple-leaf stamp, but nothing else.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • And So what I didn't say is I left Stanford post office box number so the draft board could write repeated requests for me to show up for my medical.

  • The company provided its clients with a post-office box number for secure document delivery.

Synonyms

box number
vspost-office box number
1 3.0

A number for a mailbox at a post office where someone receives mail

is limited to numbers for rented mail compartments rather than any mailbox
PO box number
vspost-office box number
2.7

A number for a box at the post office where you receive mail

is the full formal phrasing rather than the short abbreviation
PO Box No
vspost-office box number
3.5

A number for a post office box where you collect mail

is the standard full phrasing instead of the shortened written form

Surface Forms

post-office box number singular
post-office box numbers plural

Morphology

post-office + box + number

The phrase is compositionally built from 'post-office' + 'box' + 'number' so its meaning — the numeric identifier assigned to a post-office box — is directly derivable from the constituent words. This is a straightforward, literal compound following common noun-compounding patterns (P.O. box number) found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the parts will understand it.

Etymology

Post-office box number comes from the small locked boxes kept at a post office. Each person or business has a numbered post-office box where the postman leaves letters, so the number tells you which box to use 'to collect mail' and helps keep your home address private.