Now that we’re well into the 21st century, voice messaging services should be familiar to most phone users. these services have been given various names over the past decades, as have the systems that run them. Before the widespread adoption of mobile phones, most offices and many homes had answering machines.
Now that almost everyone has a cell phone or knows someone who does, users are more likely to take advantage of a service called voicemail, which works on basically the same principle, but is usually built into the hardware and phone software.
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the noun voicemail has two forms: the single-word version I’ve been using, as well as the voicemail variant, which retains separate words. which one should you use?
read on to find out.
what is the difference between voicemail and voice mail?
In this post, I’ll compare voicemail to voicemail. I will summarize the preferred spelling and provide example sentences to illustrate their context in the English sentence.
plus I’ll show you how to use a handy memory tool that makes choosing voicemail or voicemail a little easier.
when to use voicemail
What does voicemail mean? Voicemail is a noun that refers to an audio message recorded when a phone call is not answered.
If someone calls you on the phone, but you’re busy and can’t answer, the caller can leave a message on your phone’s voicemail system for you to listen to later.
for example,
- I don’t like answering phone calls, so when someone calls me, I let them go to voice mail and only call back if it’s important.
- kari called jack and left a voicemail. asking her if she wanted to have some bubble tea later at night.
- speaking of which, most of the episode is alice searching for answers about the short, mysterious voicemail he left on her phone hours before he was shot – missed his call at 11:32am. m. – the washington post
The term voicemail has been used since about 1980, when answering machines and other systems became widely available to individual and business subscribers. voicemail remains an important communication tool in professional settings, along with email and text messaging.
when to use voicemail
what does voicemail mean? voicemail is an alternate spelling of the same noun. surprisingly, it sees more use in print than its one-word counterpart (as of 2008).
This graphic represents voicemail vs. voicemail in English books since the 1800s. As you can see, these words burst onto the scene in the 1980s. As recently as 2013, Ap Style prescribed voicemail of two words.
reverted this in 2016, creating the word voicemail. this follows other style guides and dictionaries, most of which now make up the word.
I suspect the graph above is somewhat outdated. ten years is a long time when it comes to technological terms. I suspect the two variations are much more alike in current usage.
Like many compound words in English, this one began as separate words before becoming a single word. still, an early patent used voicemail in a compound way, and today most companies offering such services also use the single-word version of this term.
trick to remember the difference
Even though voice mail has been in use for many years, the standard term today is voicemail. Unless you have a very good reason not to do so, you should use voicemail.
Since voicemail and horsetail are two-syllable words and they rhyme, it should be fairly simple to remember that voicemail is best left as one word.
summary
is it voicemail or voicemail? voicemail is a noun for an audio messaging system. voicemail is the original spelling, but is now an obsolete form.
In accordance with the traditional pattern, nowadays composite voicemail is the standard way.
to conclude,
- use voicemail.
- do not use voicemail.