# Email glossary

> An email glossary with plain definitions of the terms you meet when sending email: reply-to address, email header, email body, recipient and more.

Canonical: https://www.cresca.xyz/glossary

An email glossary for people who send email: plain definitions of the terms you meet when you set up a sender, read a header or work out why a message bounced.

Terms

## Email glossary terms

- ### [Reply-to address](https://www.cresca.xyz/glossary/reply-to-address)

    A reply-to address is the email address that receives replies to a message when you want them to go somewhere other than the From address. It is set in the Reply-To header of the email. When a reader presses Reply, their mail app addresses the reply to the reply-to address, not to the sender.

- ### [Email body](https://www.cresca.xyz/glossary/email-body)

    The email body is the main content of an email: the message the reader sees when they open it, below the subject line and sender. It is separate from the email header, which carries the From, To, Subject and other delivery details. The body of an email can be plain text, HTML, or both.

- ### [Email header](https://www.cresca.xyz/glossary/email-header)

    An email header is the block of fields at the top of every email that records who sent it, who it is for, the route it took and whether it passed authentication. Mail apps show a few of these fields, such as From, To and Subject, and hide the rest. The full email header is the first place to look when an email lands in spam or does not arrive.

- ### [Email recipient](https://www.cresca.xyz/glossary/email-recipient)

    An email recipient is the person or address that receives an email. Recipients are listed in the To, Cc or Bcc field. The sender is the one who sends the email, and the recipient is the one who receives it.