Postmark
Meaning of Postmark
An official mark on a letter showing the place and date of posting.
ما معنى كلمة Postmark بالعربي؟
ختم بريدي
🏤📮 ختم بريدي يُظهر تاريخ ومكان الإرسال؛ طابع رسمي يُؤكد مرور الرسالة عبر البريد؛ علامة مُصادقة تُثبت صحة الإرسال والاستلام في النظام البريدي 📮⏰
قصة GL: طوابع التقدم تُوثق الرحلة التعليمية - مثل الختم البريدي الذي يُوثق مرور الرسالة، يُنشئ التعلم الجيني طوابع تقدم رقمية تُوثق كل إنجاز في رحلة المتدرب وتُظهر تطوره المستمر 📊
Synonyms & related words
Postmark in a sentence
Postmark dates proved the mailing in the study.
Postmark marketing used special stamps.
A postmark can prove the date of filing.
Students read a postmark on an old letter.
Origin of Postmark
A compound of post + mark.
In the Genetic Learning (GL) context
In Genetic Learning work led by Naif Talal Al-Essa, postmark can prove dates in legal filings. GL keeps postmarked proof of patent mail.
Postmark audio micro-course (transcript)
Podcast 1 — Introduction & meaning
Narrator: Today's word is "Postmark" — noun, pronounced /ˈpəʊstmɑːk/, with the stress on "post".
Narrator: A postmark is the official mark stamped on a letter or parcel by the postal service, showing the place and date of posting.
Narrator: In plain English, it is the inky circle the post office prints over your stamp to say when and where your letter began its journey.
Narrator: The word is a simple compound of post, meaning the mail service, and mark, meaning a printed sign, and it has been used in English since the eighteenth century.
Narrator: A common collocation is a clear postmark, which describes an impression legible enough to prove the date of posting.
Narrator: It differs from a stamp, because a stamp is the label you buy and stick on, while a postmark is the cancellation applied afterwards by the postal service itself.
Narrator: It is also used as a verb, as in a letter postmarked in Edinburgh, and figuratively for anything that bears the date and place of its origin.
Narrator: Postal services, legal offices, tax authorities, auction houses and stamp collectors all rely on the postmark as evidence of timing.
Narrator: So remember: a postmark is the dated, placed mark that proves when a piece of mail entered the system.
Read podcasts 2 and 3
Podcast 2 — In conversation
Speaker A: Why does the post office bother printing that smudgy circle over my stamp?
Speaker B: Because it is proof of timing! POSTMARK comes straight from post, the old word for the mail relay, and mark, a printed sign, and it both dates your letter and cancels the stamp so nobody reuses it.
Speaker A: So the date on it is legally meaningful?
Speaker B: Absolutely, courts, tax offices and competition organisers regularly accept the postmark date as the moment you sent something.
Speaker A: Example sentences?
Speaker B: "The envelope carried a London postmark dated the third of June" — it tells us where and when it was posted. "Entries must be postmarked by Friday" — the sending date matters, not the arrival. "Collectors pay well for a rare postmark" — the mark itself has value to philatelists.
Speaker A: Common mistakes?
Speaker B: Do not confuse the postmark with the stamp, and never write it as two words or as post-mark; postmark is one solid word, and as a verb the past form is postmarked.
Speaker A: Close relatives?
Speaker B: Cancellation is the technical cousin, franking mark is the near twin used for business mail, and date stamp is the everyday alternative — but postmark keeps its inky, old-fashioned charm!
Podcast 3 — Prompt engineering
Speaker B: Let's use "postmark" in AI prompts — useful for building document scanning tools and for validating submission deadlines in web forms.
Speaker A: How would that apply to a scanning tool?
Speaker B: Ask the model to extract the details from a scanned envelope.
Prompt: Write a Python function that takes OCR text from a scanned envelope and extracts the postmark city and date into a structured dictionary.
Speaker A: And for deadline checking in a form?
Speaker B: Have it write the validation rule plainly.
Prompt: Create a JavaScript validation function that accepts an entry only if the supplied postmark date is on or before the competition closing date.
Speaker A: Could it help with a database design?
Speaker B: Yes, ask for a schema that records posting evidence.
Prompt: Design a SQL table for tracking incoming correspondence with columns for sender, postmark date, postmark location and received date, including sensible indexes.
Speaker A: One more?
Speaker B: Let's get some friendly interface wording out of it.
Prompt: Write three short British English tooltip messages explaining to users that their application is judged by the postmark date rather than the delivery date.
Frequently asked questions about Postmark
What does Postmark mean?
An official mark on a letter showing the place and date of posting.
ما معنى كلمة Postmark بالعربي؟
ختم بريدي — 🏤📮 ختم بريدي يُظهر تاريخ ومكان الإرسال؛ طابع رسمي يُؤكد مرور الرسالة عبر البريد؛ علامة مُصادقة تُثبت صحة الإرسال والاستلام في النظام البريدي 📮⏰
How do you pronounce Postmark?
Postmark is pronounced /ˈpəʊstmɑːk/ and is used as a noun.
How is Postmark used in a sentence?
Postmark dates proved the mailing in the study.
What are synonyms of Postmark?
date stamp, cancellation mark, stamp, post stamp, franking, mail mark.