Lexicon: Postal Terminology for Mailing Address Formats (Postal Addresses)

with Definitions, Explanations, and Examples

Some terms used in our mailing address format guide

Codigo Postal

postcode (a Spanish-language term for it).

CPA

In Argentina, term for an Argentine postcode.

Demurrage

A fee which in some postal systems (e.g. Fiji's) might be charged for storage of a package. For example, demurrage might be charged if the recipient does not promptly respond to a notice that a package is waiting for the recipient to come collect it. (Other postal systems, however, might merely send the uncollected package back to the sender.)

EU (European Union)

Variously regarded as a treaty organization, political union, supranational state, or jobs program for bureaucrats. Includes many of the European countries.

Felibus

Vehicle used in some African countries to carry mail, livestock, and government officials who investigate cases of alleged esquivalency.

Full Stop

The punctuation mark I am using to end this sentence.
In United States English, this is called a period.
On the Internet, we often call this a dot. :-)

Honorific

A word or phrase or abbreviation such as

• Mister
• Mr.
• Miss
• Ms.
• Professor
• Reverend
• Frau
• Fräulein
• Herr Doktor / Frau Doktorin
• Señor
• Srta.
• Rdo.
• Ingeniero
• Katzentastentanzendoktor
• The Honorable
  etc...

which might be affixed to a recipient's name in an address or a letter's opening salutation.

Locality

What this means depends on the postal system involved.

In many postal systems, the locality might be a village or local area name used in rural addresses in place of the (nonexistent) town or city.

In some postal systems such as Great Britain's, the locality might be a more specific location than the town or city, which is entirely optional unless needed to disambiguate an address.

The moral: postal terminology is not perfectly standardized across the boundaries of all countries' and autonomous regions' postal systems.

PLZ

German term for postcode. Abbreviation for Postleitzahl.

Postal Code / Post Code / Postcode

In many countries, the equivalent of a United States address' zip code. A sequence of numbers and/or letters near the end of an address, which provides some guidance in sorting the mail.

For example, Canadian postcodes such as H3Z 2Y7 and T0L 1K0 include both numbers and letters. Some countries such as Great Britain even have variable length postcodes, for example:

• A1 2BC
• D34 5EF
• GH6 7IJ
• HlM 0MM
• KL8M 9NO

In a few countries, such as the Czech Republic and Denmark, one or two numbers or letters might be placed at the end of the town/city name or postal code as an indicator of postal district or postal delivery office, without necessarily being considered part of the postal code.

Within most or all of the EU, a postal code may optionally be prefixed with a one to three letter country code and a hyphen.

Please check the appropriate destination country on our main page.

Example addresses with postcodes in bold print.
JOHN JONES MARKETING DEPARTMENT 10-123 1/2 MAIN STREET NW MONTREAL QC H3Z 2Y7 CANADA	Yu Chi Enterprises Co., Ltd. 5 Lane 80 Taiyuen Road Datong District, Taipei City 10349 Taiwan (R.O.C.)
Madame Duval 27, rue Pasteur 14390 CABOURG FRANCE	Pan Martin Parma Prujezdna 320/62 100 00 PRAHA 10 CZECH REP

See Also: Codigo Postal, CPA, Zip Code

Postleitzahl

See PLZ.

Rural Address Format(s)

In several countries mail to some rural addresses is addressed not by street, or not only by street, but rather in a special rural delivery route format.

UPU (Universal Postal Union)

An organization within the United Nations, having as its members the postal agencies of many governments.

Zip Code

The United States equivalent of what most other countries' postal systems call postcodes, post codes, or postal codes. May be given as a five digit number; or as the five digit number, a dash, and another four digits adding specificity.

The five digit number alone is sufficient to facilitate delivery if the rest of the address is also correct, complete, and correctly read.

Examples:

• 85709
• 85709-3227

The page you are now looking at is a little appendage to the International Mailing Address Formats page.

Disclaimer

Although these links and other information were compiled by BitBoost Systems personnel primarily for the use of such personnel: None of the information included or linked to is guaranteed by BitBoost Systems to be available or correct. Nor is it guaranteed by any personnel or organizations associated with BitBoost Systems. BitBoost Systems takes no reponsibility for the results of using such links or other information.