noun

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

  ‘if I'm not there, leave a message on the voice mail’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The messages are not sent directly to the recipient's phone, rather the sender and the recipient must subscribe to the service which provides a secret link for them to access the message.’
  • ‘Text messaging is the cellphone technology that allows users to send and receive written messages through their phones.’
  • ‘I even used birds to send my messages from here directly to Devlin.’
  • ‘This facility uses the same ability to write to a user's console to send messages directly to their screen.’
  • ‘They are also linked to ringmaster, a telephone system for sending a voice message instantly to everyone on the system.’
  • ‘He has no emotion and responds directly to the messages he is sent.’
  • ‘When the newspaper attempted to leave him telephone messages to contact the newsroom, his mailbox was full.’
  • ‘And we couldn't have written the message he sent better ourselves.’
  • ‘Prompting strategies are verbal or written antecedent messages that designate desirable target behaviors.’
  • ‘During the war, he served in North Africa and Italy, a communications specialist, sending messages from Field Marshal Alexander to London.’
  • ‘Written information may complement verbal messages, thus enhancing concordance and encouraging behaviour change.’
  • ‘Maybe he was too slack at half-time. Maybe the tone in his voice sent the wrong message.’
  • ‘Pope John Paul is said to be alert and writing up messages just a day after throat surgery.’
  • ‘Visitors were invited to leave messages on a voice recording offering their ideas on freedom.’
  • ‘Fife Fire and Rescue Service in Scotland has teamed up with mobile phone giant Orange to allow crews to send picture messages to accident and emergency units directly from the scene.’
  • ‘For more information and to send messages of support phone 07961 106 095.’
  • ‘Verbal messages expressed by voices often are highly emotional.’
  • ‘For more information and to send messages of support phone Newham Unison on 07961 106 095.’
  • ‘Recipients can reply to messages immediately and it also records the conversation - which could be saved for playback.’
  • ‘It makes it clear that senders cannot send such messages unless they have the recipient's prior consent.’

  Synonyms

  communication, piece of information, news, word, note, memorandum, memo, email, posting, tweet, letter, line, missive, report, bulletin, communiqué, dispatch, intelligence, notification, announcement

  View synonyms

  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.

  ‘a campaign to get the message about home security across’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Can videogames convey social and political messages and still be a lot of fun?’
  • ‘Most of that material, however, while interesting, is marginal to the political message of the film.’
  • ‘Acclaimed for using a popular format to pass on the social message, the film had used the soap opera look to cash in on a large audience.’
  • ‘Sunil Kumar has used the comic character of Charlie Chaplin to convey his message through the film.’
  • ‘She appears in films that appeal to her heart and makes short ad films with a social message.’
  • ‘Most non-governmental organisations use street plays to convey important social messages.’
  • ‘Significant religious and political messages were completely missed.’
  • ‘No creative writer is interested in conveying a message, whether political or social.’
  • ‘Several non-government organisations and even government agencies have made an effort to make films with strong social messages.’
  • ‘As films laced with social messages go, this one is surely different.’
  • ‘In spite of the sorrows depicted, the film conveys the messages of resistance and peace.’
  • ‘There are no political or moral messages here, and though it clearly is an anti-war film, the point isn't belabored.’
  • ‘This shift signifies the overall message of the film - that Janice is the one with the problem, not Jane.’
  • ‘This film does convey a message, and it comes at the end, after the final bullet is fired, when the kiss has been planted on the lips.’
  • ‘However, the cinemas were not full of serious films with a political message.’
  • ‘And, again, the restrained political, social, and moral messages are insightful and stimulating.’
  • ‘Kurosawa's film conveys these messages without utilizing crude sadomasochistic images, yet it's a much more frightening film.’
  • ‘In some ways, the film's political messages are subservient to its desire to undermine the big-budget formula.’
  • ‘Writers should certainly have opinions about the social messages within the films.’
  • ‘Peer influence is exerted via social support, social comparison, and explicit and implicit messages conveyed in intimate interactions.’

  Synonyms

  meaning, sense, import, idea

  View synonyms

• 3British An errand.

  More example sentences

  • ‘all she did was make the tea and run messages’

  Synonyms

  errand, task, job, commission, chore, mission

  View synonyms