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Synonyms

pen pal

American  

noun

  1. a person with whom one keeps up an exchange of letters, usually someone so far away that a personal meeting is unlikely.

    My niece in Texas has a pen pal in France.
pen pal British  

noun

  1. Also called: pen friend.  a person with whom one regularly exchanges letters, often a person in another country whom one has not met

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of pen pal

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

She did her homework, wrote letters to friends and pen pals, and amused her visitors with games, riddles, and songs.

From Literature

The children have become pen pals with students at schools in Dedham, Massachusetts, to mark the occasion.

From BBC

“He’s just an incredibly loving soul,” said actor Debra Winger, a pen pal and close friend of Robbins’.

From Los Angeles Times

It blossomed with her friends and umpteen pen pals and reached full flower at the Malibu Cinema, the movie theater that she and her husband operated for two decades in the heart of Malibu.

From Los Angeles Times

The teen pen pals live in their version of “Sleepless in Seattle” nearly missing each other in landmarks across the city.

From Salon

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.