{"id":83852,"date":"2025-02-07T19:27:01","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T19:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/glosario\/email-address\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T18:41:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T18:41:54","slug":"email-address","status":"publish","type":"glossary","link":"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/email-address\/","title":{"rendered":"Email address"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To receive an email you need a mailbox, and for someone to write to you, they need to know what that mailbox is called. That’s your address. You’re asked for it when you open a bank account, shop online or sign up for a newsletter.<\/p>\n\n

It’s something you use every day without thinking about it. But it has a precise structure, a set of rules and far more importance than it seems.<\/p>\n\n

What is an email address?<\/h2>\n\n

An email address is the unique identifier of a mailbox on the internet. It’s used to send and receive messages: like a postal address, but digital. For example, laura.gomez@tiendaverde.es<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

No two are the same anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n\n

That’s why the system always knows which mailbox to deliver each message to, even if the sender uses Gmail and the recipient<\/a> has a company email. It’s what makes email<\/a> a universal channel.<\/p>\n\n

It has also become your digital identity. Almost every online service asks for an email address to sign up, confirm purchases or reset your password. That’s also why it’s the favorite target of phishing<\/a>: whoever controls your email can get into almost everything else.<\/p>\n\n

Parts of an email address<\/h2>\n\n

Every email address has three parts, always in the same order. It’s clearer with the previous example:<\/p>\n\n

Part<\/th>In the example<\/th>What it indicates<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Username (local part)<\/td>laura.gomez<\/td>The specific mailbox within that domain. Chosen by you or your company<\/td><\/tr>
At sign (@)<\/td>@<\/td>Separates the username from the domain. Read as \u201cat\u201d, as in \u201clocated at\u201d this domain<\/td><\/tr>
Domain<\/td>tiendaverde.es<\/td>The provider or organization that manages the mailbox<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n
\"Parts<\/figure>\n\n

The domain, in turn, has two pieces. \u201ctiendaverde\u201d is the name and \u201c.es\u201d is the extension or top-level domain, which can be generic (.com, .org) or country-specific (.es, .mx, .ar).<\/p>\n\n

The at sign<\/a> isn’t there by chance. In 1971, Ray Tomlinson chose it to separate the user’s name from the machine’s name, because it didn’t appear in any proper name. More than fifty years later, it’s still the symbol of email.<\/p>\n\n

Email address examples<\/h2>\n\n

Depending on who creates it and what for, an email address can be one of several types:<\/p>\n\n

Type<\/th>Example<\/th>What it’s used for<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Free personal<\/td>laura.gomez82@gmail.com<\/td>Private use, with providers such as Gmail<\/a>, Outlook<\/a> or Yahoo Mail<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Corporate<\/td>laura.gomez@tiendaverde.es<\/td>Work, with the company’s domain. This is corporate email<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Generic or role-based<\/td>info@tiendaverde.es<\/td>A department, not a person: sales@, support@, billing@<\/td><\/tr>
Alias with \u201c+\u201d<\/td>laura.gomez82+ofertas@gmail.com<\/td>Filtering what comes in from each website. Messages land in the same mailbox<\/td><\/tr>
Temporary or disposable<\/td>x7k2p@correo-temporal.net<\/td>Signing up without giving your real address. Expires in minutes or hours: this is temporary email<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n

A corporate address inspires more trust than a free one. If you run a business, it’s best for your customers to write to your own domain.<\/p>\n\n

Rules for writing a valid email address<\/h2>\n\n

Internet standards (RFC 5321 and RFC 5322) set out what is and isn’t allowed. These are the rules worth knowing:<\/p>\n\n