What does addressee mean?
An addressee is the person to whom a letter, parcel, email, or other message is addressed — in short, its intended recipient. The word belongs chiefly to formal and practical contexts: postal services, law, business correspondence, and academic writing about communication. When you write 'the addressee has moved' on an envelope, you are identifying the person named as the destination of that item, as opposed to the addresser, who sends it. Beyond physical mail, the term extends naturally to any directed communication: a speaker's addressee is the person they are talking to, and a memo's addressee is the person it names at the top. It pairs readily with words like 'intended', 'named', and 'unknown', as in the standard postal marking 'addressee unknown'. More conversational speech often prefers 'recipient', but 'addressee' remains the precise choice whenever the focus falls on where a message is meant to land rather than simply who ends up receiving it.
nounThe person to whom a letter, message, or package is addressed; the intended recipient of written or spoken communication.
- The person to whom a letter, parcel, or message is addressed.
- In linguistics and communication theory, the person for whom an utterance is intended.
"Please check that the addressee's name and address are correct before sealing the envelope."
"If the addressee has moved, the postal service will return the letter to the sender."
"The tone of the email shifted noticeably depending on whether the addressee was a client or a colleague."
Regular plural; used when referring to multiple recipients, e.g. of a circular letter or mass mailing.
"All addressees received identical copies of the memorandum."
Every envelope you've ever posted has had two silent stars: the sender, and the addressee — a word borrowed wholesale from French legal language.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of addressee
Addressee comes from the verb 'address', which English adopted from Old French 'adresser' ('to direct, set straight'), itself built from the Latin prefix ad- ('toward') plus the root of 'directus' ('straight'). The '-ee' suffix, borrowed from French past-participle forms, marks the person affected by an action — the one addressed. The word entered English in the late 17th century, during a period when many legal and administrative terms were imported from French, and it shares this Romance lineage with related words such as 'dress', 'redress', and 'address' itself.
How addressee is actually used
Formal to neutral in register; common in postal, legal, business, and academic contexts. In everyday speech people more often say 'recipient', but 'addressee' is preferred when the emphasis is on the named destination of a specific piece of mail or message. The phrase 'addressee unknown' is a standard notation on returned mail.
Easily confused with addressee
The addresser is the person who writes or sends the communication, while the addressee is the person it is sent to.