- By Ridam Sharma
- Fri, 10 Oct 2025 04:47 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Email Glossary: Learning email language is a crucial aspect of the digital world, especially for marketers and other professionals who use email to reach their target groups. Here is a list of common terminology used in emails to understand the confusing vocabulary, including simple terms like subject lines, attachments and more complicated terms, like the deliverability and email authentication. When it comes to handling individual correspondence or creating strategic email campaigns, the knowledge of such terms is empowering and effective in communication and positive results. The list below is important to know about email format, email marketing, email delivery, and legal considerations, as well as user relations, to gain a comprehensive picture of email communication and marketing.
List Of 50+ Essential Email Terms That Are Helpful For Corporate Employees:
A/B Split Test: This is where a list is divided into two and different versions of emails are sent, and the one that works better is observed.
Acceptance rate: Percentage of emails that mail servers accept.
ALT Tags: Distinctive words attached to images in emails to aid blind people.
Animated GIF: Small repeating animations in emails.
Attachment: The file is attached together with an email; this is not usually done in marketing emails because of security issues.
Authentication: Data authentication in emails must be done to verify that the data is authentic.
Autoresponder: Auto-mails in reaction to the action of the user.
Blacklist: A list of IP addresses or domains which are prohibited because of spam or abuse.
Bounce Rate: Percentage of emails that have failed to be delivered; it contains both hard and soft bounces.
Call-to-action (CTA): An element of an email that persuades the recipients to act.
CAN-SPAM Act: This is the US legislation that governs commercial emails to minimise spamming.
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CC (Carbon Copy): Forwarding an email to other people.
Click-through Rate (CTR): percentage of email recipients who have clicked on links in an email.
Deliverability: The Capacity of an email to get into the inboxes of the recipients.
Domain Name System (DNS): A System converts domain names to IP addresses.
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance): An Email authentication system to identify and eliminate spoofing.
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): An authentication tool in email where the sender and receiver of the mail are required to verify that the message is authentic and is sent by the owner of the domain.
Two-step subscription confirmation: to confirm real sign-ups, it is done in two steps.
Email Client: Software or application that is applicable to read and send email (example: Outlook, Gmail).
Email List: List of email addresses to be used in sending campaigns.
Email Marketing: The utilisation of emails to carry out promotions of products, services or messages.
Email Service Provider (ESP): Service/business that handles the bulk email dispatch (e.g. Mailchimp).
Email Templates: Ready-made email templates to use as a standard.
Engagement: The degree of interaction between an email recipient (opens, clicks, etc.).
Hard Bounce: Email delivery failure which occurs as a result of permanent causes, such as an invalid address.
Header: This is a portion of the email that includes the sender, recipient and routing information.
HTML mail: HTML-coded mails, which can include images and colours.
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol): Email-reading protocol that enables cross-portability.
ISP (Internet Service Provider): An organisation that provides access to the internet; it also manages email servers.
IP Address: Numerical identifier of a device that sends an email.
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List Segmentation: This is the division of an email list into small groups to send a targeted message to.
Mail Merge: This is used when it is necessary to send mass emails personalised with individual recipient data.
MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions): MIME format complements emails with multimedia.
Newsletter: Newsletter is a regular email update sent to subscribers.
Open Rate: Percentage of receivers who open an email.
Opt-in: Authorisation on receipt of emails.
Opt-out: Discovery or giving up the receipt of emails.
Personalisation: Adapting email messages to recipient information.
Preview Text: Brief information that is displayed in preview lines.
Promotions Tab: This is a section in Gmail where marketing emails are filtered.
Spam: Spam emails are unwanted or unsolicited emails.
Spam Filter: This is a software that identifies and blocks spam mail.
Subscriber: An individual who has registered to receive emails.
Suppression List: List of email addresses that are not mailed out (e.g., unsubscribed).
Transactional Email: Automated emails in response to a user (e.g. purchase confirmations).
Triggered Emails: These are emails that are dispatched as a result of a certain user action or activity.
Unsubscribe: Response to prevent future emails.
Whitelist: List of approved senders/emails to allow inbox delivery.
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol): Email transmission protocol on the Internet.
Spam Trap: A Mail address that is used to trap spammers.
Throttling: This is a method of managing email send rates to prevent ISP blocking.
Rate of engagement: Rating of email content interaction with recipients.
Feedback Loop (FBL): Process used to send spam complaints to senders through which the ISPs report.
Graymail: Mails signed by users that they are no longer using.
Email Spoofing: Scams involve the mailing of emails that look to have been sent by trusted parties.
Landing Page: A Web page that is used to take leads as a result of email clicks.
Lead Nurturing: It involves establishing relationships with prospects via email.
Email Queue: Queue of emails that need to be sent.
IP Warmup: Slow growth of emails on a new IP to establish a reputation.
Measurements: Information gathered to measure the effectiveness of the email campaign (open, clicks, bounces).
The above-mentioned list is the most important email words that allow one to maximise the potential of email as a communication and marketing tool. Knowing this, people and companies will be able to improve message content, boost engagement, adhere to laws, and improve campaign results. Whether you are an amateur or a seasoned email user, it is a necessary process to remain at the top of language understanding to become an even more effective Email user.