postbox C2+ Topic:People & Society US /ˈpoʊstˌbɑks/ UK /ˈpəʊstˌbɒks/ See IPA manual Meanings 1 noun a public box into which letters are placed for collection by the post office She dropped the birthday card into the red postbox on the corner. Thesaurus Synonyms 1 noun · a public box into which... mailboxletterboxpillarbox Word family Related forms postbox Etymology AI details A compound of post ('mail system') + box. Post derives from French poste, from Italian posta, ultimately from Latin posita ('placed, set'), from ponere ('to place'). posta Italian ponere Latin View etymology graph -> Topics People & Society External links Cambridge Dictionary Wiktionary Google Images # postbox **Type:** Word **Level:** C2+ **Part of speech:** noun **IPA (US):** /ˈpoʊstˌbɑks/ **IPA (UK):** /ˈpəʊstˌbɒks/ ## Meanings 1. a public box into which letters are placed for collection by the post office ## Examples - She dropped the birthday card into the red postbox on the corner. ## Synonyms - mailbox - letterbox - pillarbox ## Related Forms - post - box ## Roots and Affixes - Root: posta - Root: ponere ## Etymology A compound of post ('mail system') + box. Post derives from French poste, from Italian posta, ultimately from Latin posita ('placed, set'), from ponere ('to place'). ## AI Etymology Postbox is a compound of post ('mail system') + box. Post derives from French poste, from Italian posta, ultimately from Latin posita ('placed, set'), from ponere ('to place'). Important recorded forms include posta (Italian) and ponere (Latin). Morphologically, the word preserves a built structure whose named elements carry the historical sense into English. The modern sense remains close to that composition, with the parts narrowing into a single lexical item. In current use it covers a public box into which letters are placed for collection by the post office. The wider family includes related words such as post and box. ## Topics - People & Society markdown