What does franked mean?
Franked is the past tense and past participle of the verb 'to frank', which means to mark a piece of mail to indicate that postage has been paid or officially waived. A letter may be franked with an adhesive stamp, an impression from a franking machine, or, historically, the signature of an authorised person such as a member of parliament or Congress entitled to send mail free of charge. The practice gives its name to the congressional 'franking privilege' in the United States and to 'franked mail' in the United Kingdom, where businesses routinely frank large volumes of correspondence with meter marks instead of stamps. Because the word belongs mainly to postal, administrative, and legislative contexts, it retains a formal, institutional flavour rather than appearing in casual conversation. It derives ultimately from 'frank', meaning free — the same root that gives us the words frankly and franchise.
verb (past tense and past participle)Franked is the past tense and past participle of the verb 'to frank', meaning to mark a letter or parcel to indicate that the postage has been paid or is waived, especially with a stamp, meter mark, or official signature.
- To have marked a letter or package to show postage was paid or waived, typically with a stamp, meter impression, or official signature.
"The senator's office franked hundreds of reply envelopes before the mail-in campaign began."
"Every outgoing letter had been franked with the company's meter mark."
"Under parliamentary privilege, MPs' letters were franked with their signatures rather than stamps."
Members of the US Congress can send mail entirely free of charge just by signing it — a privilege called 'franking', inherited from an old English custom of letting certain officials post letters for free.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of franked
The verb 'to frank' comes from 'frank', meaning free or exempt, which entered Middle English from Old French 'franc'. The French term traces back to 'Francus', the Latin name for the Franks, the Germanic people who gave France its name; because the Frankish free men held full legal rights, their ethnic name became a word for 'free'. From this same root descend frankly, frankness, franchise, and the former French currency the franc. Applying 'frank' to mail — meaning to make a letter free of charge — arose in the seventeenth century, when English members of parliament and other officials could send letters simply by signing them.
Related word forms
How franked is actually used
Primarily used in postal, business, and governmental contexts. In the UK, 'franked mail' commonly refers to items processed by a franking machine rather than stamped by hand. The term carries a bureaucratic, formal register rather than everyday conversational use.
Easily confused with franked
'Flanked' means positioned at the sides of something, while 'franked' refers to marking mail as paid or exempt from postage; the two sound similar but share no meaning.