1A verbal, written, or recorded communication sent to or left for a recipient who cannot be contacted directly.

1. 1.1US An official or formal communication, especially a speech delivered by a head of state to a legislative assembly or the public.
   ‘the president's message to Congress’
   More example sentences

   • ‘I am here to deliver a very important message from the President.’
   • ‘They have delivered public and private messages urging the dictator to leave the country, so that disarmament can proceed peacefully.’
   • ‘Are you satisfied with the message the President delivered tonight and the way in which he delivered it?’
   • ‘And they have got a good public message working, and the news media is doing a great job of covering it.’
   • ‘This had been a public service message from your local Chamber of Commerce.’
   • ‘When the president stood up in front of a crowd, he was not delivering one message, he was delivering two.’
   • ‘I delivered a very strong message to them that, look, we love competition in America.’
   • ‘It was in the summer of when a top secret message was delivered to Farid.’
   • ‘The president delivered his message in an informal forum, which he used often on the campaign trail.’
   • ‘Thursday, the third and final day of the summit, the President delivered the message himself.’
   • ‘The Evening Press delivered a message of opposition to the president and the prime minister earlier this week.’
   • ‘The general promised to deliver their message to the President after he returned from his trip to Central Java.’
   • ‘As he delivered the king's message to him, an evil smile slowly spread over Gornezàc's face.’
   • ‘The announcement page was simple and spare, and used no text to deliver the initial campaign message.’
   • ‘As the consul in Rabat, Imrad was privately received twice by King Mohammad V to deliver messages from president Sukarno.’
   • ‘He blessed the gathering from the main stage before delivering a strongly worded message to the G8 leaders.’
   • ‘The President today marked Labor Day by delivering an optimistic message on jobs and the economy.’
   • ‘The message is delivered formally by the speech to the conference, but in reality by the briefings to the media.’
   • ‘John suggests that Hans did not understand the president's message yesterday.’
   • ‘As our Chamber Chairman Mary Black again reaffirmed in her message – our Chamber is, first and foremost, about member service.’
2. 1.2An email or similar electronic communication.
   ‘select an option to delete your mail messages’
   More example sentences

   • ‘For example, when typing a mail message, or word processing the GPU can be throttled back to reduce component temperatures, and increase longevity.’
   • ‘It was so nice to see your website right after I received a spam mail message from Acme Online Systems!’
   • ‘The screen is captured and a new mail message launches in the default mail application.’
   • ‘Under the act, the sender of a commercial electronic mail message must identify the e-mail as an ad (though not necessarily in the ‘re’ line) and provide a valid physical postal address for the sender.’
   • ‘Versa, which lodged a complaint with the Public Prosecutor Service, is currently trying to find out who is responsible for the ploy by analysing the headers and the IP address of the mail message.’
   • ‘Yes, their administrator is probably concerned that one or more of the words in your mail message is offensive, and is blocking them.’
   • ‘Open relays are mail servers that will process a mail message even though neither the sender nor the recipient is a local user.’
   • ‘That means we can't really get hold of the actual source IP, because unlike a mail message, there's nothing in the TCP / IP specification that will add the routing to the packet as it goes along.’
   • ‘Hyperlinked tasks give you an easy way to refer back to information related to a task, whether in the form of a file, mail message, Web page or IRC session.’
   • ‘I don't set a ‘Vacation’ message nor do I update my voice mail message.’
   • ‘Thank you for your electronic mail message concerning your travel experience.’
   • ‘They also allow for users to forward mail and return a mail message.’
   • ‘To be removed from the list, send an empty mail message to email’
   • ‘You should be able to find a mail message or file by looking in your e-mail program or a directory window, not by firing up another application.’
   • ‘Further, if the given electronic mail message is determined to be junk mail, the e-mail systems of other trusted users in the group dispose of unviewed copies of the junk e-mail.’
   • ‘He left a voice mail message for me at 3.53 p.m., in other words, a few laps before the finish, saying: ‘I know that you're sitting in the car, because I'm watching you on television right now.’’
   • ‘A mail message that you have sent has been opened by its recipient.’
   • ‘PC users are advised to delete suspicious messages and on no account to open attachments matching the description for the virus.’
   • ‘It now embraces most text formats, email messages and HTMLs, multimedia files, web browser histories, bookmarks and favourites.’
   • ‘However, one of the problems of the internet are spam messages to your email account that waste your time and can even be fraudulent.’
3. 1.3An electronic communication generated automatically by a computer program and displayed on a screen.
   ‘an error message’
   More example sentences

   • ‘Your browser will usually automatically generate a message when this occurs.’
   • ‘You can set it up to automatically generate e-mail messages when certain alert conditions are met such as running out of stock on an item.’
   • ‘Each piece of equipment in a computer network generates messages and events and errors - right?’
   • ‘ApparelMail includes a series of predefined messages that are generated automatically based on data within the application.’
   • ‘After displaying the message, the program launches iTunes and plays the mp3 file.’
   • ‘Each morning, a computer automatically issues an email message to operations staff.’
   • ‘The server generates a plurality of messages, where each message includes one of the portions of the communication.’
   • ‘Spim is more insidious than spam because messages pop up automatically when a user is logged in, making them harder to ignore.’
   • ‘Speaking at the International Advertising Association in London, he also slammed the practice of designing ads to look as if they are computer system messages.’
   • ‘The basic task of psad is to make use of firewall log messages generated by either ipchains or iptables to detect suspect network traffic.’
   • ‘The fault here lies in the code that generates the warning message when a particular error condition associated with digital signatures occurs.’
   • ‘Prior to the creation of this facility, each application program would handle log messages in its own way.’
   • ‘Later in this article, we examine how these messages are generated in the Samba source code.’
   • ‘To that end, Salgado suggested that honeypots display a banner message warning that use of the computer is monitored.’
   • ‘Each time a message is generated by syslog, it is sent through the pipe to the other side if possible.’
   • ‘Normally you should only receive the message that the computer cannot go into standby mode if the camera is attached to the computer.’
   • ‘As a result, many people found their inboxes clogged with alarming messages that their computers were infected, even though they were not.’
   • ‘After a few seconds I get a message that the new Program is installed and it needs to connect to get possible updates.’
   • ‘Customized error messages improve Web usability by constructively helping users find the desired page.’
   • ‘Established wisdom holds that good error messages are polite, precise, and constructive.’
4. 1.4A divinely inspired communication from a prophet or preacher.
   ‘Jesus and his followers were promulgating a specifically Judaic message for Judaic adherents’
   More example sentences

   • ‘Those who believed the message he preached became not only good people, but good citizens and then good leaders.’
   • ‘The recently urbanized underclasses are particularly susceptible to the messages of populist preachers.’
   • ‘The message entrusted to the preacher must be proclaimed just as it was first delivered.’
   • ‘Then the image of a depression-era preacher and his message of Hell-fire and brimstone.’
   • ‘Both are portrayed as prophets who proclaim a message from God.’
   • ‘The preachers carried a message that was not their own and it put an awe upon them.’
   • ‘Both meanings are relevant to that great universal event of the revelation of the Quran and the assigning of the message to the Prophet.’
   • ‘Having been barred from entrance into the temple precincts, the prophet dictates his message to Baruch.’
   • ‘The message of the Prophet has purified the concepts and practices of his followers to set them on the right course acceptable to Islam.’
   • ‘Some churches still believed the message, and even prayed, but became isolated from the communities they were meant to serve.’
   • ‘Some of the prophets' messages were invitations, such as when Haggai called the people to rebuild God's temple.’
   • ‘Had our religious leaders used their privileged positions to preach peace messages from their pulpits, perhaps the message could have reached more people.’
   • ‘But now imagine their reaction as God sends the prophet Ezekiel with a message of hope.’
   • ‘To be in communion with God means to turn away from sin and believe in the saving message of Jesus Christ.’
   • ‘But we believe the message is unchanging, it's as powerful today as it was 2,000 years ago.’
   • ‘He claimed that all those who believe His message and receive His way of salvation are made part of the covenant.’
   • ‘The preacher's job is to preach the message of the text or passage before him.’
   • ‘Don't you find it amazing that so many people who heard Paul preach rejected his message.’
   • ‘Such men preach with urgency because they have experienced in their hearts the message they preach.’
5. 1.5US A television or radio commercial.
   ‘we will return after these messages’
   More example sentences

   • ‘These will be reinforced with similar messages on radio and television.’
   • ‘Many have developed responsibility messages for television and radio.’
   • ‘Brown adds that A.E. uses radio and television messages to promote its refrigerated yogurt products.’
   • ‘The Joint Electoral Management Body is using more orthodox means to reach potential voters, with messages on radio, television, and newspapers.’
   • ‘They're using phones to respond quickly to attacks and to reinforce direct mail, television and radio messages.’
   • ‘They put out their message on radio, television, and in the newspapers and gained widespread popular support.’
   • ‘The start of the coup was to be signalled through coded messages on television and radio.’
   • ‘During a mission that was led by the Colonel, I received a radio message to return home.’
   • ‘Television, radio and leaflet messages will also be important.’
   • ‘In addition to running the ads on television and in papers, the group has broadcast radio messages and printed some two million brochures.’
   • ‘It's not that children aren't otherwise bombarded with consumer messages - on television, at the mall and from their peers.’
   • ‘The television, radio and website messages, being broadcast throughout January, aim to make parents and youngsters aware of how to surf the web safely.’
   • ‘Inevitably, a radio message is less powerful than a television message, relying solely on the sense of sound.’
   • ‘He also claimed that the pyramid was 35,000 years old and was used in antiquity to transmit radio messages to the Grand Canyon.’
   • ‘The promotion will be supported with local radio and in-stadium messages.’
   • ‘It was used by the military during World War II to try to identify speakers of intercepted radio messages.’
   • ‘In a further attempt to remind drivers of their responsibilities, the radio station broadcasts messages from famous musicians.’
   • ‘At the start of the season, His Excellency Governor Frank Savage and Mr. Georges presented radio messages.’
   • ‘If we sit mindlessly in front of the television receiving these messages, we may feel some unresolved discomfort.’
   • ‘Yet radio does have the advantage of tight targeting, and radio messages can be produced and aired quickly when necessary.’

2A significant point or central theme, especially one that has political, social, or moral importance.

3mainly British An errand.

Send a message to (someone), especially by email, text, app, or other electronic means.